Truth About Cutting Your Investment and Retirement Taxes, The: The Essential Truths in 20 Minutes

Product Author Bios

S. Kay Bell has been writing about taxes for a decade, but following the subject–as a taxpayer, journalist, Congressional staff member, and government relations specialist–for most of her journalism career. After two decades in Washington, DC, including stints on Capitol Hill and with two major multinational corporations, she helped launch the tax channel at the popular personal finance website, Bankrate.com. She still writes for Bankrate, including the site’s tax blog, Eye on the IRS.

 

In addition, Bell posts daily at her own personal finance blog, Don’t Mess with Taxes, where The Wall Street Journal praised her ability to effectively put her personal finance advice in a social or historical context. Her writing also appears in numerous mass-circulation publications and websites, including USAToday.com, TheStreet.com, MarketWatch.com, and AOL.com, and she is regularly interviewed by media outlets ranging from National Public Radio’s “Marketplace” to Yahoo’s “Generation Debt.”

 

All you need to know about cutting your taxes...this year and every year!

• The truth about maximizing all your legal deductions and credits
• The truth about smart tax planning for today and for the long term
• The truth about avoiding IRS audits and costly tax penalties

 

Simply the best thinking

THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

 

This book reveals 52 PROVEN bite-size, easy tax savings techniques that work.

 

“Kay Bell’s blog aims to provide tax and personal-finance tips and advice that will put more money in your bank account, not the government treasury.”

The Wall Street Journal

 

Table of Contents

Introduction     vii

 

Part I: The Truth About Filing Requirements

Truth 1: Not everyone has to file     1

Truth 2: Figuring out your filing status     5

Truth 3: Filling out the right form     9

Truth 4: Meeting filing deadlines     13

 

Part II: The Truth About Taxable Income

Truth 5: Determining what's taxable     17

Truth 6: Earned versus unearned income     21

Truth 7: The alternative minimum tax     25

Truth 8: Our progressive tax system     29

 

Part III: The Truth About Credits and Deductions

Truth 9: Why credits are better     33

Truth 10: Standard versus itemized deductions     39

Truth 11: Dealing with deduction limitations     43

Truth 12: Maximizing charitable deductions     47

Truth 13: Deducting without itemizing     51

 

Part IV: The Truth About Taxes and Your Family

Truth 14: Marriage and taxes     55

Truth 15: Innocent and injured spouse issues     59

Truth 16: Tax implications of divorce     63

Truth 17: Claiming exemptions and dependents     67

Truth 18: Adoption assistance     71

Truth 19: Child and additional child tax credits     75

Truth 20: Tax help in caring for your kids (and others)      79

Truth 21: Tax-favored college savings options     83

Truth 22: When a child has to file     87

Truth 23: Taking tax-smart care of a parent     91

 

Part V: The Truth About Taxes and Your Employment

Truth 24: Getting your withholding right     95

Truth 25: Tax-favored employer-provided benefits     99

Truth 26: Recouping employee business expenses     103

Truth 27: Writing off job-hunting costs     107

Truth 28: Tax help in paying work-related moving costs     111

Truth 29: Self-employment tax considerations     115

 

Part VI: The Truth About Taxes and Your Home

Truth 30: Mortgage interest deduction     119

Truth 31: Writing off your property taxes     123

Truth 32: Increasing your home's tax basis     127

Truth 33: Home-sale tax exclusion     131

 

Part VII: The Truth About Investment Taxes

Truth 34: Capital gains rules and rates     135

Truth 35: How bad investments can pay off     139

Truth 36: Reporting investment income     143

Truth 37: Wash sale rules     147

Truth 38: Accounting for the kiddie tax     151

 

Part VIII: The Truth About Retirement Taxes

Truth 39: Individual retirement accounts     155

Truth 40: Company retirement plans     159

Truth 41: Retirement saver's credit     163

Truth 42: Retirement plan rollovers     167

Truth 43: Taxable Social Security benefits     171

Truth 44: Required minimum distributions     175

Truth 45: Estate taxes, or leaving it to your heirs, not the IRS     179

 

Part IX: The Truth About Tax Compliance

Truth 46: The trouble with tax protests     183

Truth 47: Payment options     187

Truth 48: Tax penalties     191

 

Part X: The Truth About Audits

Truth 49: Minimizing audit risks     195

Truth 50: Preparing for an audit     199

 

Part XI: The Truth About Special Tax Situations

Truth 51: Taxpayers abroad and military filers     203

Truth 52: Tax help in disastrous times     207

 

Epilogue     211

About the Author     212