Earned Income Tax Credit

How to put more in working-class pockets

February 22, 2017 By Liz Weston

The American working class lost a shocking amount of wealth in recent decades as wages stagnated. Despite campaign promises, making up that lost ground will be no easy feat.

Creating more well-paying jobs would help, but that could take years. Tax cuts could mean bigger paychecks for higher earners but won’t immediately help the many working people who don’t pay federal income taxes — people in the bottom 40 percent of incomes receive more back from the federal income tax system on average than they pay in, thanks to tax credits.

Expanding those credits, on the other hand, quickly could make a real difference in people’s lives and help return some of the income that’s been sacrificed to changing economies and technology.

In my latest for the Associated Press, a look at which tax credit expansion would put more money back into working-class pockets.

Home sale tax break won’t disappear

October 1, 2012 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: My wife and I are trying to sell our home, which has been our primary residence for six years. I am very concerned about the $500,000 capital gains exclusion. As I understand it, the exclusion would mean we wouldn’t have to pay taxes on our home sale profit. But we are confused about this exemption being tied to the “Bush tax cuts” that could expire Dec. 31. If we sell our home after that, could we lose the exemption?

Answer: No. The law creating a capital gains exemption for home sales went into effect May 6, 1997. It’s not tied to the tax cuts approved during President George W. Bush’s tenure that are set to expire at the end of the year.

So people who live in a home for at least two of the previous five years will still be able to avoid paying capital gains on their first $250,000 of home sale profit (or $500,000 for a married couple).

Another tax you likely won’t have to pay is a new 3.8% levy on what’s called “net investment income.” Some emails circulating on the Internet falsely claim that the tax, which is scheduled to kick in Jan. 1, is a real estate sales tax. In reality, it’s a potential tax on home sale profits that exceed the capital gains exemption limit, as well as on other so-called unearned income, including investment and rental income.

If your home sale profit doesn’t exceed the capital gains exemption limit, you won’t owe the new tax. If your profit does exceed the limit, the excess amount would be added to your adjusted gross incomes to determine whether you’d have to pay it. The 3.8% tax would be levied only on people whose adjusted gross incomes are more than $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples.