Go to Jeff Salisbury LWGate Home Page.From: persfin-digest <owner-persfin-digest@shore.net>
Subject: persfin-digest V4 #117
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:47:30 -0500 (EST)
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persfin-digest Wednesday, January 14 1998 Volume 04 : Number 117
IN THIS ISSUE:
ADVERTISEMENT: LAN ACCESS TO MCI MAIL
Income Tax Web Site?
Fee Simple?
Reducing Storage Area for Quicken Transactions?
Quicken and capital gains time periods?
Sega tour groups?
Investment for baby?
home construction question
discount brokers and bonds
CD for 10 yrs..
Re: Buying inimproved land
Mellon Mortgage Experiences?
re: keeping old copies of persfin
Re: Tax Preparation Fees
Mortgage/frequent traveler points?
Re: Can I Put Private Stock into a Roth IRA?
Quicken - Where is their accountability?
Re: margin?
quicken & mutual fund returns
Best Long-distance Phone Service?
Money Saving Tip When You're Going Away
Tax audit: Am I getting good advice from my accountant??
Re: Tax Help vs. Do It Yourself?
state tax question
Question about buying tax liens as investments
Private Stock Prices: Can They Fluctuate?
Re: Tax Help vs. Do-It-Yourself
Re: Can I Put Private Stock into a Roth IRA?
Re: Quicken - Where is their accountability?
Re: Computer upgrades on personal computers as business expense?
Re: tax help vs do it yourself
Roth conversion restriction
Real Estate: Estate Sales
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Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:06:14 -0500 (EST)
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:07:04 -0500 (EST)
From: theraven@juno.com (John l Barreras)
Subject: Income Tax Web Site?
Is there a site on line, or can someone send me the list that
shows what tax bracket you are in? You know, you make so much so you are
in the 15%, etc...
Thanks in advance.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:11:13 -0500 (EST)
From: George Kolb <afn01634@afn.org>
Subject: Fee Simple?
I was reading through my deed and saw several references to the property
being held in "fee simple." Could someone tell me what this is?
Thanks for your help,
George Kolb
Gainesville, FL
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:12:04 -0500 (EST)
From: "Larry Archer" <bullfrog@infoserve.net>
Subject: Reducing Storage Area for Quicken Transactions?
I would like to reduce the storage size of my Quicken transactions, they
start back at Aug/96 and I won^Òt need to refer to them again. Is there a way
to remove all 1996 transactions without effecting my present balances? Would
you please e-mail directly. Thanks
Larry
Larry Archer
Maple Ridge, B.C.
bullfrog@infoserve.net
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:12:44 -0500 (EST)
From: eric <eric_marcus@compuserve.com>
Subject: Quicken and capital gains time periods?
Does anyone know if Quicken has been (or will be) updated to include the
new three time-periods of capital gains? Phoning Quicken is an exercise
in futility!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:18:11 -0500 (EST)
From: eric <eric_marcus@compuserve.com>
Subject: Sega tour groups?
Has anyone done any trips with "Sega"? It's a tour group for people over
50.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:18:39 -0500 (EST)
From: david & sandy tall <detall@tiac.net>
Subject: Investment for baby?
Any advice on setting up investments for a baby. Mutual fund set up as a
trust? Someone had advised about an college fund that can be used at any
school but didn't know any details. Thanks david tall
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:20:05 -0500 (EST)
From: "Martin S. Turnauer" <mturnaue@runet.edu>
Subject: home construction question
Knowing that this group has a wide variety experiences, I would like your
help.
My wife and I plan to build a home at Myrtle Beach, SC for rental for 6-10
years and then move into it. Since we are out of state, now residing in VA,
I would like to talk with people who have done this.
Also, I would like to know about the experiences people have had with
modular, sectional or prefab homes. If you have had experiences with Jim
Walter homes or those type of companies, I would also appreciate talking
with you.
Please email directly mturnaue@runet.edu or if you believe others on the
list would enjoy the discussion, please post your experiences.
Thanks
Marty
_____________________________
Martin S. Turnauer, Professor
Health & Physical Education
Box 6957
Radford University
Radford, Va. 24142
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:21:32 -0500 (EST)
From: Margebonne <Margebonne@aol.com>
Subject: discount brokers and bonds
Does anyone know of a good discount broker who can execute bond
trades efficiently?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:22:13 -0500 (EST)
From: RCastro897 <RCastro897@aol.com>
Subject: CD for 10 yrs..
Discover is offerring 6.74% for 10 yrs on their CDs. I am retiring next year
at 62 and looking for income, would this be good deal?
Ralph in san diego
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:23:18 -0500 (EST)
From: David Beiter <BYTER/0006351762@MCIMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Buying inimproved land
Jeff Morgan <Morgajs@parsec.com> asked:
> Now, a completely different topic: does anyone know of
> any good books about buying unimproved land?
>
> I'm thinking about buying a few acres and eventually
> putting a house on it, and am wondering what the common
> pitfalls are.
I don't know where you are looking, or the state of property
description there, but here in backwoods Kentucky land descriptions on
deeds are not always what they seem.
If you want to make some sense of the leagaldybeagledy gobbledy
doubletalk in the land description, try my DEED PLOT to draw a map
from your land description.
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/engineer/ddplt053.zip
or ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/engineer/ddplt053.zip
To get a preliminary estimate of just where the boundaries actually
lie, assuming that the deed description does not lie, try SURVEY LAND
YOURSELF quick & easy compass & tape surveying.
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/engineer/sly253a.zip
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/engineer/sly253b.zip
Part A is a book on land surveying, in English, in text. Part B is a
program for the ibmPCclone. In DOS. I don't do WinDoze. If you do
not have the mental facilities to use DOS, you should NOT be trying to
Survey Land Yerself.
David P Beiter
byter@mcimail.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:25:25 -0500 (EST)
From: "Lloyd Colston" <colston@viagrafix.com>
Subject: Mellon Mortgage Experiences?
If you have had dealings with Mellon Mortgage (good or bad) please
share those with me.
Thanks.
Lloyd Colston Excellence is not an accident.
Pryor, OK USA social worker, writer, editor
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:25:56 -0500 (EST)
From: "Lloyd Colston" <colston@viagrafix.com>
Subject: re: keeping old copies of persfin
If you can save the copies to disk, you can use an archiver to "zip"
them. That way they don't take up a lot space and you don't have to
kill a lot of trees.
Let me know how more I can help.
Lloyd Colston Excellence is not an accident.
Pryor, OK USA social worker, writer, editor
Member: International Small Business Consortium
KC5FM Home page http://www.viagrafix.com/colston
mailto:colston@viagrafix.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:27:06 -0500 (EST)
From: "Louis J. Schwarz, CFP, RFC" <sfc@deafcfp.com>
Subject: Re: Tax Preparation Fees
The fees for tax preparation services are widely varied from $50 to a
few hundred dollars. It also depends on how will the tax preparer
communicate with you, inform you, and keep track of your tax records,
etc.
If you want your money worth, interview them and then choose the best
one you feel comfortable with. Also check with your friends for
recommendation.
You may try this: http://www.tax-directory.com for more information.
- --
Louis J. Schwarz, CFP, RFC TTY 301-587-5996
Schwarz Financial Concepts FAX 301-587-5997
814 Thayer Avenue, Suite 301 Voice Relay 800-735-2258
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-4500 Mailto:sfc@deafcfp.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:27:40 -0500 (EST)
From: gary dunn <garydunn@pullman.com>
Subject: Mortgage/frequent traveler points?
About a year I heard about United Airlines offering frequent traveler points
for the amount of the mortgage you would get thru their Milage Plus
Residential Rewards program. We will be closing on a new home next month,
and was hoping someone out there might know if their are any other companies
offering frequent traveler points for getting a mortagage thru them. Or are
there any Web sites for getting extra rewards for going with certain
companies for a mortgage? Hope to hear from someone about this. Thanks.
Gary Dunn, Publisher
THE CARETAKER GAZETTE
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:28:07 -0500 (EST)
From: Rich Carreiro <rlcarr@animato.pn.com>
Subject: Re: Can I Put Private Stock into a Roth IRA?
[Disclaimer: this is my opinion, not advice. I am not a professional.]
>Does anyone know if you can put private stock into a Roth IRA? I have
>some stock options from a company that is not public yet. I want to put
>the options into a Roth IRA so when the company does go public, I can
>sell them and pay no tax.
Since the only ways to get assets into a Roth are by cash
contributions or conversion of an existing traditional IRA, I don't
see how the proposed transaction could happen unless the property in
question is already in a traditional IRA, which it is not.
Rich Carreiro
rlcarr@animato.pn.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:28:43 -0500 (EST)
From: Rich Carreiro <rlcarr@animato.pn.com>
Subject: Quicken - Where is their accountability?
>I called the 800 # and asked what they were going to do about that, in
>view of the recent court ruling...the Answer was (after a 10 minute
>wait),
1. The court ruling isn't final.
2. Who says the government will win? (and I firmly hope that the
govt gets its head handed to it on a platter in this case).
3. Why on earth should Intuit do anything about anything? Even
if the government wins its ridiculous case and MS has to offer
non-IE versions of Windows, Intuit (and every other vendor) is
free to decide to license IE from MS and include it in their own
products if they feel it is in their best interests.
4. If you don't like the product requirements, don't buy the bleeding
product and tell the company why.
Rich Carreiro
rlcarr@animato.pn.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:29:12 -0500 (EST)
From: Rich Carreiro <rlcarr@animato.pn.com>
Subject: Re: margin?
>When you borrow money with your portfolio as equity, does the lender
>view the loan as a percentage of your entire portfolio's value, or
>rather does he view each security bought on margin a separate loan?
Read your specific margin agreement to be sure, but in general the
loan is viewed as a percentage of *marginable assets in the
portfolio*. This could be less than the value of the entire portfolio
if the portfolio contains non-marginable assets or if some assets in
the portfolio are kept in the cash side of the account.
>percentage of margin on each individual holding. Now imagine that some
>holdings remain stable, while some holdings drop to the point that, on
>an individual basis, I have less than 35% equity in one or some of these
>securities. But, given my overall portfolio equity, my TOTAL equity as
>a percentage of my total equity plus TOTAL debt is still above the
>minimum. Will I get a margin call for those individual securities that
>have decreased in value?
Assuming the ratio of your total debt to the total value of marginable
securities in your account is less than whatever your broker requires
(some brokers use higher thesholds than the 35% NYSE floor) you will not
receive a margin call.
Again, this is only in general. The language of your specific margin
agreement with your broker controls.
Rich Carreiro
rlcarr@animato.pn.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:31:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Robb Warren <rwarren@mis.net>
Subject: quicken & mutual fund returns
I've noticed many postings regarding Quicken, and since they now only
give support through a 900 number for v6 for Windows, I thought maybe a
reader could help. Q6 sees any reinvestment from dividends (or other
gains) as ADDED money i.e. I buy $10K of a fund, and to simplify, lets
say the fund goes up 20% and distributes it all as a dividend. I post my
$2K dividend as an automatic reinvestment. A (very) little math shows
I've made 20%. But Q6 says I have invested $12k (apparently ignoring the
fact that the $2k came FROM the fund), and the value of my investment is
$12K so my return is ZERO! I can trick it by adding shares at no cost,
but then I have no record of my reinvestment cost for tax purposes. Has
anyone noticed this, or am I doing something wrong??
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:32:49 -0500 (EST)
From: "Stewart Hull" <slh33@hotmail.com>
Subject: Best Long-distance Phone Service?
Who currently offers the best long-distance telephone rates?
I'd like to get $0.10/min at all times with no monthly fee. Is this
possible? Can that be beat?
Thanks,
Stewart L. Hull
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:33:46 -0500 (EST)
From: BOB FORD <BOB_FORD@compuserve.com>
Subject: Money Saving Tip When You're Going Away
Here is a tip that might save you a lot of money and grief. When you are
going to be away from your home for a vacation or extended period of time,
turn off the water to your clothes washer and toilets. The rubber hoses
to the washer can break and flood your house. Toilets now have parts made
of plastic that are easy to break after repeated use and if they break,
your house can be flooded.
BOB FORD
BOB_FORD@COMPUSERVE.COM
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:35:29 -0500 (EST)
From: "alkon" <alkon@hal-pc.org>
Subject: Tax audit: Am I getting good advice from my accountant??
I am in the throes of being audited by the IRS for
business deductions in 1995. My accountant filed my
return at that time and was the one who ok'd the
deductions for which the IRS is now questioning.
I have >already spent $500 in fees for my acct to talk with the
IRS about the audit. Yesterday, I received the news
that the IRS has disallowed the deductions and now want
$5000 in back taxes and interest. My accountant thinks
that the auditor was not being fair and feels that I
have a good chance of recovering some of the assessed
taxes in an appeal. The process he suggests in going
about the appeal process is this:
1. Talk with the original auditor to convince her
of her erroneous ways.
2. Failing the first... go to formal appeal
My thought is that the first step is unnecessary because
the auditor is vested in being right about her original
decisioin. I feel it is unlikely that she will change
her mind. The issue for me in bypassing this step (if
it is sensible to do so) is that my accountant will
charge $150 for this process.
I would also like to know if it makes sense for me to try to go
through the appeals process myself. I am intelligent and lean toward
"do it yourself" approaches.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:36:22 -0500 (EST)
From: owner-persfin-mod@shore.net
Subject: Re: Tax Help vs. Do It Yourself?
>I am curious about the benefits of using an accountant to prepare my
>taxes.
>Up until last year my taxes were very simple. I made an error on my
>1996
>taxes and overpaid my taxes. The IRS did not catch the mistake. In
>fact,
>they "lost" my return after they cashed my check. It only took 2
>months to
>get my refund though. I am lucky, I know. 1997 will be more
>complicated
>because I bought a home and can itemize deductions for the first time.
> I
>know I should avoid H&R Blockhead. But does it pay to use an
>accountant?
>I've heard estimates of up to $400 for tax preparation. This sounds
>steep,
>but it might be worth it if I save more that $400 in taxes and avoid
>any
>penalties. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
>Laine
>
One of the advantages of "H&R Blockhead" is that for an extra $3 or $4
you can have your return electronically filed - if they prepare it. With
the new tax changes I have heard that the IRS will not accept an
electronic return with a SCH D until late Feb, and will just hold and not
process SCH D paper returns until that time, so there are some
complexities in the new law. In my opinion, the returns of any preparer
"H&R Blockhead" or accountant are only as good as the preparer. I've seen
some bad ones from both places and prepared one or two of my own I'd
later found out I had to amend. "H&R Blockhead" does offer to review your
prepared return free - but again only to the ability of the preparer.
They will give you an over the phone approximate preparation cost.
Dave Flynn
flynndj@juno.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:37:16 -0500 (EST)
From: "John and Stacy Cole" <thecoles@eis1.eis.com.eg>
Subject: state tax question
I am a U.S. citizen working for the U.S. government and assigned to
an American embassy overseas, and I have a question about paying
state taxes. I was a Maryland resident until 1995, when I relocated
overseas (with government orders). I have been paying Maryland taxes
since then and having state taxes withheld from my pay check. My plan
is to stay overseas for at least the next 15 years or so (I am 39).
If I do return to the U.S. to live before retirement, it would be to
the Washington area, but not necessarily to Maryland.
A colleague who has similar circumstances recently told me that her
tax accountant had advised her to apply to Maryland for a refund of
her taxes, since she is not living in Maryland nor using its
services. The accountant contacted someone in the Maryland state tax
department, who said that it sounded like my colleague qualified for
a refund. She sent in the refund application and actually got the
money back (only the last two years' worth because of the statue of
limitations). Even though she was able to get the refund on the
grounds that she is no longer a Maryland resident, she apparently
still has to have Maryland taxes withheld from her pay check (because
she is not a resident of any other state) and will have to apply for
the refund each year.
I talked to her tax accountant, who struck me as a careful,
trustworthy person, and she advised me that I should also qualify for
a refund, even though I own rental property in Maryland, because I do
not intend to return to Maryland. This sounds too good to be true
(but they actually did give my colleague her money back!). Does
anyone out there have any experience or comments on this? It seems
as though the worst that can happen is that Maryland would eventually
change its mind and ask for the money back (particularly if something
happened and we did return to Maryland). It just seems strange to me
that I would ask for my state taxes back on the grounds that I'm not
a resident of Maryland when I can't say that I'm a resident of any
other state and when I still have to have Maryland taxes withheld
from my paycheck. On the other hand, I don't use any of the services
that my tax money is paying for (I pay real estate taxes for the
rental property) so why should I be paying out all that money?
I would very much appreciate any comments on this situation.
Stacy
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:38:31 -0500 (EST)
From: rpalma@msai.mea.com (Peter Palma)
Subject: Question about buying tax liens as investments
It's Sunday morning so I'm watching infomercials
while I read the newspaper.
The latest one I've seen is by Ted Thomas who is selling
a system of investing in tax liens to get real estate cheap.
I realize people seldom actually default on a good house
due to $2000 dollars in tax bills, but how do tax liens do
as investments with respect to the interest paid?
Thomas was saying most counties (in California) pay double
digit interest on the order of 16% and the investment is guaranteed
by the government since you get the property if they don't pay the
tax with the interest.
Where's the catch?
Are these interest rates typical?
Is there any reason not to go to the tax sale, buy $10,000 worth
of liens, and just wait a year to get repaid with the interest?
I wouldn't want to take someone's house and evict them, but if you
can get higher than cd rate on a guaranteed investment it sounds like
a good idea.
As with most infomercials, it sounds and probably is too good to be
true. In particular, I think he's not selling any information
you can't get by calling the county tax office directly.
Here's the details on the infomercial:
Ted Thomas is the author
Personal Fortune is the name of his company in California
price was $179.85 for the books, tapes, videos, etc.
phone number was 1-800-560-3223
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:39:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Peter & Karen Diamond <diamond@vsi.net>
Subject: Private Stock Prices: Can They Fluctuate?
Hello everyone,
I was wondering how the stock of a privately held company can fluctuate.
Details are:
There is a privately held company that currently owns about 80% of the stock.
The other 20% is held by outside investors.
The company is going to buy back the 20% for complete ownership.
They are NOT going public.
They claim that the stock price will go up on the date of repurchase.
(and they name the specific price it will increase to)
What is going on here? If the stock is not publicly traded, how is a
share price determined and how can it fluctuate?
Peter Diamond
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:40:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Bob Hartwig <rph1@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Tax Help vs. Do-It-Yourself
>I am curious about the benefits of using an accountant to prepare my taxes.
>Up until last year my taxes were very simple.
I few years ago I was in the same situation, but found that TurboTax or
TaxCut make itemization on returns fairly easy. TaxCut was a lot cheaper
and seemed just as good, in my opinion. I'd recommend trying it yourself
using one of these programs. If you still think you're short-changing
yourself, you're only out $25-$40.
Now I've been wondering the same thing again, however. I had income in 3
states from 3 employers last year, plus the sale and purchase of a home,
moving expenses, etc. My investments were fairly straightforward, with all
purchases and no sales of shares.
Will accountants give estimates if you describe your situation to them
before hand? $400 does seem like a lot to pay, unless they have a few
tricks that can save me that amount.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:41:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Steve Foulks <steve_foulks@up.bresnan.net>
Subject: Re: Can I Put Private Stock into a Roth IRA?
>Does anyone know if you can put private stock into a Roth IRA? I have
>some stock options from a company that is not public yet. I want to put
>the options into a Roth IRA so when the company does go public, I can
>sell them and pay no tax.
Your question seems to be be, " Can I fund my 1998 Roth IRA contribution
with securities?" Sorry you must fund an IRA with cash.
It is possible to rollover securites from a regular IRA to a ROTH tax free,
or to roll securities from another tax sheltered plan (i.e., Keogh, 401(k),
403(b), etc.) to a regular IRA, then to a ROTH.
Steven M. Foulks, CPA, CFP, PhD
Professor of Accounting & Finance
Northern Michigan University
<http://www.acs.nmu.edu/instruct/business/sfoulks/default.html/>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:42:53 -0500 (EST)
From: "Ken Meinken" <kmeinken@bigfoot.com>
Subject: Re: Quicken - Where is their accountability?
> From: Steve Foulks <steve_foulks@up.bresnan.net>
> Aren't you adult enough to take care of yourself. I suspect that you feel
> that the government should regulate all commerce, as well as your personal
> life also. I come from a different generation. If I don't like the way
> the product comes, I DON'T BUY IT!! I don't need some idiotic bureaucrat
> to make decisions like that for me. As a matter of fact I don't need an
> idiotic bureaucrat to make ANY decisions for me.
Steve,
although in general I agree that minimal government is good
government, you will only have the ability to make a choice IF there
is more than one option to choose. The government anti-monoply laws
are important in maintaining that choice. We all benefit when there
is competiton. Microsoft has a history of putting competiton out of
business and it is NOT because Microsoft always has the best
products. Micrsoft does not compete in a fair playing field. In
this case, it appears that they are leveraging their "inside
information" about the operating system to put competiton for
application software out of business. In a past agreement with the
Justice Dept., they agreed not to do so.
Ken
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:43:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Steve Foulks <steve_foulks@up.bresnan.net>
Subject: Re: Computer upgrades on personal computers as business expense?
>as a faculty member at Texas A&M my main income is salary. I do,
>however, do several consulting jobs throughout the year which increase
>my income by several K. The one tool I use more then anything else is
>my personal computer. This computer was purchased using personal funds
>and is used for personal / educational (teaching & research) /
>consulting purposes. This year I upgraded the computer system
>purchasing a new hard disk, better sound card, more powerful CPU and
>recently after I noticed that a publishing/consulting project software
>was running slugish I purchased extra RAM.
>
>Can I these computer upgrades of my personal computer as business
>expenses? Any ideas or pointers (suggestions how to handle this in the
>future) would be welcome.
>
>Thanks,
> - Henrik
Yes you can, but only for the portion of time that you used it for
consulting purposes. You need to keep a log book of the time used on each
task. Guessing won't cut it. There is a slim possibility that you might
get a deduction for your educational employment use, but only if your
employer doesn't make computer equipment available to you and the tasks you
use it for are required in your job. There is a lot of litigation on this
last issue. As an educator myself, I don't think that I could justify a
deduction, even thought my personal computer at home is much more capable
than my office computer.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:43:59 -0500 (EST)
From: "Ken Meinken" <kmeinken@bigfoot.com>
Subject: Re: tax help vs do it yourself
...
> know I should avoid H&R Blockhead. But does it pay to use an accountant?
> I've heard estimates of up to $400 for tax preparation. This sounds steep,
> but it might be worth it if I save more that $400 in taxes and avoid any
> penalties. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Laine,
it depends....
On how complex your taxes are, how well you understand the tax law
(rofl), how accurately you do things, etc.
How much it costs will vary dependent on the complexity of your
return and the costs of the preparer. We started going to a CPA when
we sold our last house (9 yrs ago) and we have continued to go to
him. For us, it is well worth the hassle of trying to read and follow
the tax booklets (some people might enjoy that, we sure don't!) My
wife says that not having to listen to me complain about the tax
forms is well worth the money <g>. Our returns usually cost in the
$150-200 range and that includes a lot of investment tax items.
Usually our CPA optimizes the income to reduce the taxes (who gets
what deductions, who gets which investment income, etc.) That's
something I know I would never be able to do and that saves us some
money too.
Besides, we have the piece of mind of knowing that it was done by
someone more competent in tax returns than we are.
Ken
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:45:03 -0500 (EST)
From: drstone@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu
Subject: Roth conversion restriction
Happy New Year, Pers-finers,
One more query about Roths:
There is some sort of $100,000 threshold on Adjusted Gross Income
which must be considered when rolling an IRA into a Roth IRA in 1998, but
everything I have read has been fuzzy on this cap.
One interpretation: if a couple has a 1998 AGI more than $100K,
neither could convert an IRA to a Roth IRA, even if each had an income
below the $100K threshold. I would rather have a different interpretation:
if each were to compute an individual AGI and it turned out less than 100K,
then each person could convert.
I asked folks at T. Rowe Price and Schwab and they both read it the
first way. But they are not the IRS (whom I have not asked).
Does anybody have a definitive ruling on this?
Thanks for any help.
David
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
David R. Stone Office Phone: 912-681-5335
Department of Mathematics and CS Office Fax: 912-681-0654
Georgia Southern University drstone@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu
Statesboro GA 30460-8093 Home Phone: 912-681-4048
"It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing."
Cardinal Newman
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:45:58 -0500 (EST)
From: "Gary M. Oppenheimer" <GOPPENHEIMER/0002180241@MCIMAIL.COM>
Subject: Real Estate: Estate Sales
My wife and I are starting to look for a vacation home (in NJ, NY or CT),
for both pleasure and as an investment.
Is it possible to get purchase furnished homes in estate sales? Where
does one get info on this?
Thanks
Gary Oppenheimer
------------------------------
End of persfin-digest V4 #117
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