The Sun's Financial Diary

IRS today announced a special tax break for new car purchases (the tax break was actually approved by the congress as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009). If you are planning to buy a new car, then you may get a break on state and local sales taxes and deduct taxes [...]

If you are saving for your retirement using vehicles such as IRA and/or 401(k), there are limitations on when investments can be withdrawn from these accounts. Since these are tax deferred accounts, either contributions (401(k) and Traditional IRA) or growth (Roth IRA), or both (401(k) and Traditional IRA) will be taxed at the time when [...]

Early last year, the government sent taxpayers an economic stimulus tax rebate check, which is now called Recovery Rebate Credit, up to $1,200 (of course, you had to file 2007 tax return to be eligible for the rebate) as part of the efforts to revive the economy. And by now we already know that the [...]

The tax season is just around the corner, did you get your tax preparation software yet? If not, do you know which software you want to use if it’s the first time you use a tax preparation software to file your income taxes? When I posted the tax software giveaway last week, I also included [...]

If you are preparing your own 2008 taxes, there are some changes in the tax law in 2008 that you should be aware of, because the changes will affect your taxes. The IRS recently published 2008 tax law changes, among them the following are more common to taxpayers: Economic stimulus payment: The economic stimulus payment [...]

For many investors, 2008 will be a year to forget: With all three major indexes down close to 40% this year, investors are left nowhere to hide. However, if you suffered big losses from your investments in 2008, there are tax moves that you can take to ease the pain. Early this month, I read [...]

The tax season is coming soon and it’s about time to consider some tax strategies as 2008 quickly draws to a conclusion. With stock markets got hammered so badly this year, there are some moves you can make to take advantage of the current situation while preparing yourself for a rebound in the stock markets [...]

When we received our economic stimulus payment of $201.10 last Friday, we didn’t know what went wrong because the note from IRS said we should get $383.95, and I was actually expecting another check. Now, a week later, I guess I can forget about another check and the reason for the reduced payment is my [...]