Get smart with your money
Today’s top story: The 4 best times to file taxes. Also in the news: What’s different in this year’s tax filings, 5 traits shared by the best financial planners, and could this be the year to buy a house?
The 4 Best Times to File Taxes
Never Mind Tax Reform — What’s Different When I File This Year?
The Best Financial Planners Share These 5 Traits
Is 2018 the year to buy a house?
Could this be the year?
Today’s top story: How to leverage great credit without borrowing a dime. Also in the news: How to get your taxes done for free, how to hang on to more cash, and how to save for your kid’s college and still live.
How to Leverage Great Credit Without Borrowing a Dime
Capitalizing on great credit.
How to Get Your Taxes Done for Free
Examinging the offers.
To Hang On to More Cash, Let Go of These in 2018
Time to get rid of those delivery apps.
How to Save for Your Kid’s College and Still Live
The saving doesn’t have to be painful.
Dear Liz: Thanks for your recent column on setting up a living trust. This sounds like something that I should do, but I have a few questions. Would federal and state taxes be due on earnings on assets in the trust? Would these taxes due be paid out of earnings of the trust? Would I continue to pay taxes on my income from sources other than the trust?
Answer: Revocable living trusts are an estate-planning tool used to avoid probate, the court process that otherwise follows death. Unlike many other types of trusts, revocable living trusts don’t trigger special tax treatment. You’re still considered the owner of the assets, so you’ll continue reporting earnings and income on your individual tax return, as you previously did.
Revocable living trusts also don’t get special estate tax treatment. Revocable living trusts are designed to eliminate the potential costs and delays of probate, not of the estate tax system. Living trusts may include provisions meant to reduce estate taxes, such as language creating a bypass trust upon death, but those are the same kinds of provisions that can be included in wills.
Today’s top story: 7 questions to ask before you hire a tax professional. Also in the news: The security of your hotel’s mobile room key, side hustles you can start with no money, and how to pay off student debt while still saving and investing.
7 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Tax Professional
Asking the important questions.
How Secure Is Your Hotel’s Mobile Room Key?
Risking safety for convenience?
Side Hustles You Can Start With No Money
No investment necessary.
How to Pay Off Student Loan Debt While Still Saving and Investing
Paying for the past, planning for the future.
Dear Liz: I gave my daughter $30,000 in 2015. I was fined $5,000. Why? I had not talked with another daughter, who does my taxes, so I was not aware that I could give only $14,000. If I had known, I could have given her the money over two years. Why wouldn’t they advise me as such?
Answer: It’s not clear whom you mean by “they,” but you need to have a chat with the daughter who does your taxes, because it’s extremely unlikely you were fined by the IRS for your gift.
In 2015, you wouldn’t owe gift taxes until you had given away more than $5 million in your lifetime above the $14,000-per-person annual limit. (That lifetime limit, by the way, has been raised to over $11 million, and the annual gift exclusion limit is now $15,000.)
If you had to pay an extra $5,000, it was for something else. Let’s hope the tax-preparing daughter didn’t decide to “fine” you for favoring your other child.
Today’s top story: Is your driver’s license enough for domestic flights? Also in the news: How to have a proper parental fight over college costs, what will happen to your taxes under the new tax rules, and what will get more expensive in 2018.
Is Your Driver’s License Enough for Domestic Flights?
Big changes are coming on January 22nd.
How to Have a Proper Parental Fight Over College Costs
Facing tough decisions.
Will Your Taxes Go Up or Down Under the New Tax Rules?
It’s a whole new ballgame.
What’s getting more expensive in 2018? The gas for your car
Get ready to pay more at the pump.