income tax

States With No Sales Tax

by Michael on May 3, 2013 · 2 comments

As a quick followup to my earlier post on the impact of the internet sales tax, I wanted to share with you the list of states that do not (currently) collect sales and use taxes. As of this writing, there are five such states, including: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, [...]

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Why Buy I-Bonds?

by Michael on Apr 24, 2013 · 0 comments

I’ve received a couple of inquiries about why I’m such a fan on Series I Savings Bonds, so I thought I’d spend a bit of time discussing that today. As a reminder, I-Bonds are low-risk, inflation-indexed savings bonds that are issued (and backed) by the Federal government. So what’s so [...]

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In addition to putting a cap on retirement accounts, President Obama’s budget proposal includes a possible transition to the so-called “chained CPI” for inflation adjustments. This includes things like cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients as well as various tax provisions that are indexed to inflation. But what exactly is [...]

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Tax day is three weeks away. This means that you have two weeks to fund an IRA and have it count toward the 2012 contribution limit. If at all possible, you should do this. Why? Because once the window closes, you can’t go back and make up for a missed [...]

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Taxes are due four weeks from today. You should thus have plenty of time to get things pulled together before the deadline. But if you don’t make it, all is not lost. You can always request an income tax filing extension. Yes, that’s right. A filing extension. In case you [...]

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In response to my post detailing our portfolio, a reader named James asked the following: Why not a LifeStrategy fund? Because of lack of space in tax-deferred? That’s a great question. Why not simplify and use a single fund instead of three or four? Well, James hit on the biggest [...]

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The Economic Impact of Income Taxes

by Michael on Mar 1, 2013 · 3 comments

In honor of Sequestration Day I thought I’d highlight the results of a recent study from the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy. As I’m sure you’re aware, there’s pressure in a number of states to reduce or abolish personal income taxes. In general, the argument in favor of doing [...]

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Over the past few weeks I’ve mentioned (in passing) the ability to buy additional Series I Savings Bonds with your tax refund. In short, you can request up to $5k in I-Bonds (in $50 increments) with your tax refund. These are issued in paper form and are in addition to [...]

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