Pay less tax when planning for retirement

It’s always a good to idea to make the most of tax-advantaged savings accounts and investments in your retirement planning. They’re a smart way to leverage your savings effort.

But now is an especially important time to make sure you’re not overlooking any opportunities to save and invest in a tax-efficient way.

Why? Well, taxes could soon

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A Roth Conversion and Your Estate Planning Strategy

Converting your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA could have important implications for your estate planning strategy.

Beginning this year, you can convert to a Roth regardless of your income or tax-filing status and spread the pre-tax income equally across 2011 and 2012. Should you decide to do so, it also may be a good idea

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How the New Wealth Taxes Will Hit You

The health-care bill that Congress passed in March contained two surprising new taxes to help pay for the changes: an extra 0.9% levy on wages for couples earning more than $250,000 ($200,000 for singles) and a new 3.8% tax on investment income on those same people (technically, people with “adjusted gross incomes” above those amounts).

Each

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Smart Spending: Spending Tips for Taxpayers

Few truths are more universal: No one likes to pay taxes, and everyone loves to get things for free. Restaurants and other retailers are offering freebies to reduce people’s angst over their income taxes — which must be postmarked or e-filed by Thursday.

From cupcakes and pancakes to dinners and coffee, the offers are meant to

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Money and Wealth: Tax law is unfair to mutual-fund investors

If you have money invested in mutual funds outside of a tax-free or tax-deferred retirement fund your effort to increase your wealth is constantly threatened by the tax laws.

As mutual-fund investors finish up their tax returns for 2009, they might think about what is likely to happen this year, and what could have been.

See the

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Medicare taxes: What the rich will pay

High-income households will be paying more into Medicare taxes as a result of the new health care reform law and the “fixes” to that package that passed Thursday.

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Taxes and Estate Planning: New Ways to Give More Away

Taxes and Estate Planning

Tax advisers are pushing new maneuvers that allow taxpayers to get more money to their children and to their favorite cause—at the same time.

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Surprise tax bills for millions of Americans

More than 15 million people will get an unexpected tax bill this year or next thanks to the Making Work Pay credit, according to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

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What to do if you can't pay your taxes

If you’re stuck with a tax bill this year, rather than your usual refund, you’re not alone. This year and next, more than 15 million taxpayers may find they unexpectedly owe Uncle Sam because they received more of the Making Work Pay tax credit than they were entitled to. Here are some tips on what

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