Tag: personal-finance
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Should We Set Up a Trust for Tax Purposes? Death, Taxes, and the Trust That Could Solve Both.
Estate Planning is always a difficult but necessary step to complete in your financial plan. Couple that with major tax implications, and you will quickly see why it is important to keep your estate plan updated. Many owners and families often ask whether they need a trust. I have written about trusts before, but mainly…
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What Age Should I Retire? How to Adjust Your Financial Plan for Retirement.
Retirement is a highly personal concept. Some take the traditional route by leaving their 40-hour work week, while others try to work as long as possible. Retirement planning is less about that one day when you never work again; it’s more about what you are going to do in the future. While everyone retires at…
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What If I Don’t Want To Retire? 5 Reasons Why Retirement Planning Is Important Even If You Never Plan on Retiring.
Within the last 80 years, Americans created the modern version of what we call retirement. While the concept is still relatively new, there is some debate about what retirement should look like for most people. Some who are multi-decade workers would like to retire and never work again, while others claim to never stop working.…
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Where Do You Save My Money? The 3 Buckets of Tax-Smart Saving.
Savings, whether from profits or windfalls, must go somewhere. Once money is earmarked for savings, it should be allocated to one of three categories. While there are many reasons to save for a future expense, breaking down all savings into one of three tax buckets can help you better prepare for future goals. Three Tax…
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What About Capital Gains? 5 Strategies For Small Business Owners to Defer or Reduce Their Capital Gains.
Large capital gains are always something worth planning for. Especially after selling a business, tax years with large capital gains can feel particularly painful when the tax bill comes. Even though long-term capital gains are taxed at more favorable rates, there are still many planning opportunities to reduce the taxes even further. Capital Gains When…
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What Happened to Write-Offs for Business Investments? Bonus Depreciation and Section 179 Deductions Just Shifted.
Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in 2017, there has been a yearly struggle with the amount of depreciation allowed for new business purchases. At the start of this decade, businesses could generally deduct 100% of new machines, cars, tech, furniture, etc. This full write-off has been slowly eliminated over the last few…
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Can You Still Deduct State & Local Taxes? How the New Tax Bill Changed the Popular Deduction.
If you pay at least 5-figures in taxes, the new tax bill may have just improved your tax situation. Since 2017, one of the major topics of contention has revolved around deducting State and Local Taxes (SALT) on your federal return. Many high-income owners pay a lot of non-federal taxes, and many want a deduction…
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How Much Does the New Tax Bill Change Things for Me? Understanding the QBI Update is Essential for Business Owners.
Among the many changes in the new One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA), the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction got a permanent upgrade for small business owners. What started with the TCJA temporary provisions has now been placed permanently into action (or until a future congress changes it). While the QBI deduction did not materially change…
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Dependent Care Perks: Level Up Your Family Tax Strategy
Raising children is one of the most expensive things in life. Fortunately for us parents, as part of the recent tax bill, the OBBBA solidified the expanded Child Tax Credit amount. In 2025, you may be eligible to receive a credit for each qualifying dependent up to $2,200. That will generally lead to another question:…
TC Falkner 