Ask Liz Weston

Get smart with your money

Q&A

Q&A: Capital gains tax on home sale profit

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Dear Liz: I recently sold a home and am trying to escape the dreaded capital gains tax. I’ve done everything I can to reduce my overall tax bill, including maxing out my retirement contributions. I don’t want to buy a more expensive home to escape the gains tax. Any thoughts?

Answer: Buying a more expensive home wouldn’t change what you owe on your previous home. The days when you could roll gains from one home purchase into another are long gone.

These days you’re allowed to exclude up to $250,000 in home sale profit from your income (the limit is per person, so a couple can shelter $500,000). In other words, that amount is tax free, as long as you lived in the home for at least two of the previous five years. Beyond that your profit is subject to capital gains taxes. The top federal capital gains rate is 20%, plus a 3.8% investment surtax if your income is more than $200,000 for singles or $250,000 for married couples.

Here’s where good record-keeping may help. While generally you’re not allowed to deduct repair and maintenance costs from that profit, you can use home improvement expenditures to reduce the tax you owe. Home improvements are added to your cost basis — essentially what you paid for the property, including settlement fees and closing costs, and that’s what is deducted from your net sales price to determine your profit.

You’ll need receipts plus credit card or bank statements to prove what you paid. Improvements must “add to the value of your home, prolong its useful life, or adapt it to new uses,” according to IRS Publication 523, Selling Your Home. Examples of improvements include additions, remodels, landscaping and new systems, such as new heating or air conditioning systems. You can include repairs that are part of a larger remodeling job, but you can’t include improvements you later take out (such as the cost of a first kitchen remodel after you do a second one).

Q&A: What to do about heavy credit card debt

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Dear Liz: I have a lot of credit card debt and am just able to make minimum payments. I feel like after doing this for four years now that I am not getting ahead. I will be 61 this summer and don’t have much saved for retirement. My rent keeps going up along with other expenses. I have an 11-year-old car that is in need of maintenance but don’t have the funds to do it. My question is, what would happen if I walk away from the credit card debt? Will I be facing garnishment?

Answer: Yes, you could be sued and face wage garnishment if you simply stopped paying your debts.

You could consider a debt management plan offered through a credit counselor, which could lower the interest rates you pay. You can get referrals from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling at www.nfcc.org. But you’d be making payments for the next five years or so, when you could be putting that cash toward your retirement.

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy, by contrast, would take a few months and legally erase your credit card debt to give you a fresh start. Bankruptcy is often the best of bad options when you can’t make progress on your debts. Consider meeting with both a credit counselor and a bankruptcy attorney so you understand all your options.

Q&A: Parking money for a short term

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Dear Liz: We will soon be selling our home and moving into an apartment until we purchase a new home. Our proceeds from the sale will be over $600,000. It seems that there is no place to safely put the funds and get some meaningful interest to boot. Savings accounts and money markets pay very little interest, and certificates of deposit have a fixed time. We may need to withdraw the money in as few as 30 days, but it may be six months or longer. Any suggestions where to park our money?

Answer: Some online banks currently offer interest rates around 1% for savings accounts. It’s not much, but it’s better than the 0.06% rate that’s currently the national average, according to the FDIC’s April 3 report. An Internet search for “best savings rates” should turn up competitive offers.

A rate of 1% isn’t much and means that you’ll lose a little ground to inflation, which is currently more than 2%. But it’s more important that your money be safe and liquid, ready when you need it, than for you to try to squeeze a high return from it.

Q&A: Annuities have indirect costs

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Dear Liz: Thank for your right-on reply to the reader who claimed that fixed and indexed annuities were available at no cost to investors. I am so tired of hearing from agents and investors that their annuity is great and does not have fees!

Answer: Insurance companies aren’t charities providing investments at no cost. They’re businesses that have to keep the lights on and pay the people who sell their products. With fixed and indexed annuities, the cost is built into the interest rate spread, which is the difference between what the insurer earns on your money and what it pays into your account. The investor pays an indirect cost, rather than a direct cost that’s explicitly disclosed.

4 tax hacks you might not know

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You know to contribute enough to your 401(k) to get the full company match. Maybe you’ve even adjusted your withholding so you’re not giving Uncle Sam an interest-free loan.

Yet you may feel the need to do even more, especially if you’re making the last big push toward retirement. These hacks allow you to shelter more money from taxes now and when you retire. In my latest for the Associated Press, the 4 crucial tax hacks you might not know.

Q&A: Credits can boost a refund beyond the taxes paid — and keep millions out of poverty

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Dear Liz: A friend of mine received a 2016 tax refund of over $9,000 even though this person did not pay nearly that amount in taxes over the course of the year. My friend has a fairly low-paying job with no benefits, is a single parent of two young children and receives no support from the children’s other parent. Given this scenario, is it possible to get a tax refund in an amount greater than what you paid in taxes?

Answer: Absolutely, and these refundable credits keep millions of working Americans out of poverty each year.

Refundable credits are tax breaks that don’t just offset taxes you owe but also can give you additional money back. Most of your friend’s refund probably came from the earned income tax credit, which was initially created in the 1970s to help low-income workers offset Social Security taxes and rising food costs due to inflation.

The credit was expanded during President Reagan’s administration as a way to make work more attractive than welfare. Each administration since has increased the credit, which has broad bipartisan support.

The maximum credit in 2016 was $506 for a childless worker and $6,269 for earners with three or more children. Your friend probably also received child tax credits of up to $1,000 per child. This credit, meant to offset the costs of raising children, is also at least partially refundable when people work and earn more than $3,000.