Ask Liz Weston

Get smart with your money

q&a

Q&A: Capital gains and mutual funds

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Dear Liz: Your tax expert’s answer to a person who wanted to roll over a $30,000 capital gain on a mutual fund missed an important point. Since the couple were solidly in the 15% tax bracket with a taxable income under $72,000, they should qualify for the 0% federal capital gain tax rate. (They may, of course, owe state taxes.)

Answer: They may not have had a capital gain at all, as other tax pros have pointed out. When people own mutual funds, the earnings are often reinvested each year. If the couple paid taxes on those earnings, their basis in the mutual fund would increase each year. To know if the couple had any capital gain, we’d need to know that adjusted tax basis. In any case, the original answer — that you can’t roll over the gain on a mutual fund into another investment to avoid capital gains taxes — still stands.

Q&A: Social Security and marriage

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Dear Liz: Each year, I track my estimated Social Security benefit on the SSA.gov website. At full retirement age of 67, my estimated benefit is $1,504. Is it true that my actual benefit may be reduced by 50% since I am married?

Answer: Good heavens, no.

If you’re married, your spouse may be entitled to a benefit that equals up to half of your check. But your check is not reduced to provide this spousal benefit. Instead, the Social Security Administration typically would calculate the benefit your spouse earned on his own, compare that to his spousal benefit, and then give him the larger of the two amounts.

If you have ex-spouses from marriages that lasted at least 10 years, they too could be entitled to spousal benefits. But those benefits wouldn’t reduce your check or your husband’s.

Q&A: Work from home jobs

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Dear Liz: Are there legitimate “work from home” Internet job opportunities, or are all those advertisements just scams?

Answer: You should be skeptical of advertisements in general and particularly advertisements about an area as scam-filled as work-from-home opportunities.

Yes, many people make a living working from home. They’re typically employees of companies that allow them to telecommute, or they’ve launched successful businesses or they’re answering phones for a call center. They are not unskilled people making a killing at jobs that require little effort, which seems to be what most of the scams promote.

You can research legitimate opportunities by starting with legitimate websites. AARP, Bankrate.com and Kiplinger all have good articles on the topic.

Q&A: How to escape a timeshare

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Dear Liz: How do I walk away from a timeshare? It’s paid off but we have yearly maintenance fees that are now $3,600 each year. This will be prohibitive in retirement, and it’s quite a burden now. The developer won’t let us give it back, and we can’t sell it because the resale companies are sharks that demand money upfront. Can they ruin our credit if we stop paying? Is there any way to protect ourselves?

Answer: If you stop paying your annual maintenance fees, your account can be turned over to a collection agency. That will trash your credit, and you could be sued.

Many people who buy timeshares don’t realize they’re making a lifetime commitment, said Brian Rogers, owner and operator of Timeshare Users Group. Even after any loans to buy the timeshare are paid off, owners owe maintenance fees on the property. Maintenance fees typically rise over time and may be supplemented by special assessments to repair or upgrade resorts as they age.

The good news is that you may be able to get out from under these fees by selling your timeshare, and you don’t have to use a resale company that charges an upfront fee. In fact, you shouldn’t, since those arrangements are frequently scams, Rogers said.

The amount you’re paying indicates that you own a timeshare at an upscale resort. (The average maintenance fee is closer to $800 a year, Rogers said.) If that’s the case, your timeshare may have some value, even if it’s only a tiny fraction of what you paid. Owners at less desirable resorts often find they can sell their timeshares for only $1, and may have to pay others to take the timeshares off their hands.

You can list your timeshare for sale at no or low cost on EBay, Craigslist, RedWeek or Timeshare Users Group, among other sites. To get some idea of what it’s worth, enter the name of the resort into EBay’s search engine and click on the “completed sales” box on the lower left side of the page. Timeshare Users Group and RedWeek offer additional advice on selling timeshares.

You also could consider renting out your timeshare, using those same sites. Many owners discover they can offset or even completely cover their maintenance fees through such rentals, Rogers said.

Q&A: How to fund a Roth IRA

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Dear Liz: I have quite a bit invested in stocks in a regular brokerage account. I’ve held them for many years, and to sell them would mean huge capital gains taxes. I’d like to move some of these into a Roth IRA, so that I can avoid paying taxes on their appreciation and dividends, since I plan to hold these for quite some time. Is it possible to move these stocks into a Roth IRA without selling and repurchasing?

Answer: Nope. Uncle Sam typically gets his due, with one major exception.

Roths have to be funded with cash, and direct contributions are limited to $5,500 per person per year, plus a $1,000 catch-up contribution for those 50 and over. Your contributions would be further limited once your modified adjusted gross income exceeds $181,000 for married couples and $114,000 for singles, said Mark Luscombe, principal analyst for tax research firm CCH Tax & Accounting North America. A big-enough capital gain, on top of your regular income, could push you over those limits.

If you want to avoid paying capital gains, just hold the investments until your death. Your heirs will get the investments at their market value and can sell them immediately without owing any capital gains. There may be other taxes involved, however. If your estate is worth more than $5 million, it may owe estate taxes, and a few states levy inheritance taxes on heirs.

Q&A: How to correct social security errors

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Dear Liz: I am 64. I recently reviewed my Social Security summary online and saw that it does not have an accurate listing of my income, so the projections of my benefits aren’t accurate either. How do I correct these errors?

Answer: There are a number of ways the Social Security database could be wrong. An employer could have reported your earnings incorrectly or not at all. Or your earnings could have been reported using the wrong name or an incorrect Social Security number. If you married or divorced and changed your name, but failed to notify Social Security, that also could lead to errors in your record.

You can call the Social Security help line at (800) 772-1213 to start the process of correcting your records. It would be best if you have proof of your earnings, such as W-2 forms, tax returns or pay stubs from the years in question. If you don’t have such proof, the Social Security Administration asks that you provide as much information as possible about where you worked, the name of your employer(s), the dates you worked and how much you earned.

Your experience shows why it’s important to periodically review your Social Security records to make sure they’re accurate. This year the Social Security Administration will resume sending paper statements to certain workers (those aged 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60), but in the meantime you can check your records online by signing up at http://www.ssa.gov/mystatement/.