If you have not started to plan your estate, you are putting yourself in a hole. This very well could be a hole that you never crawl out of, depending on your age or health. It is recommended that you start to plan your estate the minute you are hired for your first full-time job after school. Even if you aren't married. Even if you don't have children. It's still important to write down where you want your property to go upon your death.
Smart ways to protect your wealth
No one wants to lose their hard-earned cash to foolish investment strategies. Therefore, it pays to invest a little time into knowing how to adequately manage your wealth in the future, both for your life and the lives of your beneficiaries.
How is an estate calculated after death?
It can be confusing to try to navigate the estate valuation process. Whether you are someone who is currently planning their estate and you want to understand the entire process, or if you are a person that has recently lost a loved one, it is important to conduct adequate research so that you know how different assets are calculated.
How to avoid unintentional tax evasion
Everybody wants to arrange their taxes so that they are advantageous and maximize their income as much as possible. While this is a natural and smart thing to do, many people accidentally cross the line and engage in practices that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers tax evasion or fraud.
Navigating federal estate taxes
Only a small minority of people are affected by federal estate tax. In fact, between December 2012 and March 2016, only .2 percent of Americans needed to pay federal taxes on their estate. However, state taxes are still applicable to many Americans today.
Deep tax cuts proposed could affect estate planning
The current leaders of the House of Representatives are proposing some major tax cuts that could, if passed, affect both corporate and individual taxes.
Ten tips to reduce estate taxes
It can be in your best interest to reduce the amount of taxes incurred by your estate. After all, who wouldn't want to pass as much of their estate along to their loved ones as possible?
How tax audits work in Massachusetts
If you have recently inherited part of an estate, you may feel burdened with the prospect of filing your estate taxes for the first time. You might also be worried about the likelihood of an audit being done, and would like to be as prepared as possible. The good news is that as long as you follow the tax procedure in Massachusetts systematically and carefully, you have no reason to worry about a tax audit and its consequences.
What are tax exemptions?
When planning your estate or considering whether to create a will or a living trust, it is important to consider whether you will be entitled to tax exemptions. Tax exemptions allow you to be able to lower the income that can be taxed, therefore increasing your pocketable income. Tax exemptions must be claimed, and you are generally able to claim them on your own behalf, but also on behalf of your spouse and any dependents that you have.
Preparing for an efficient audit
When creating a retirement plan or a living trust, you must ensure that you are ready to have your tax return examined at any time. It's very important that you are prepared for this and you have the information that the auditors will require readily available.
