IRS Tax Support

Need a loan? In today’s lousy credit environment, securing one may not be much fun. It may not even be possible (at least at reasonable rates) — unless you have access to an untapped home equity line of credit or a helpful relative.
If you do, that’s great. If not, I’ve got a solution for anyone [...]

Buying your first home is an exercise in faith. You don’t really know what you’re getting into, you’re awash in unfamiliar terminology and everyone you meet seems to have strong (and utterly contradictory) ideas about which way the housing market is headed.
You may not be able to avoid every home-purchase mistake, but you can keep [...]

Florida’s big-time housing bust is a disaster for sellers, but it gives retirees and others a great buying opportunity.
Here in Fort Myers, Fla., people don’t ask whether we are headed for a recession. They know a recession is here. For those who live here, the questions narrow down to two:
How much worse will it get? [...]

Corporate America may have turned its back on traditional pensions but it appears to be embracing 401(k)s more than ever.
While retirement savings remain largely up to employees, companies are spending more to strengthen their plans through features that boost savings such as automatic enrollment, advice and more investment options. Some also are increasing or initiating [...]

IRS Summertime Tax Tip 2008-04
Here’s a tax break for the busy summer. Many working parents must arrange for care of their children under 13 years of age during the school vacation period. A popular solution — with a tax benefit — is a day camp program.
The cost of day camp can count as an expense [...]

The Internal Revenue Service today announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2008. Taxpayers may use the optional standard rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.
The rate will increase to 58.5 cents a mile for all business [...]

Rates on 30-year mortgages didn’t budge this week, while rates on other home loans were a mixed bag.
Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.52 percent for the week ending Aug. 7. That was the same as last week’s rate, which marked the second-highest of the year. The highest — [...]

With gas prices rising, fuel efficient vehicles are gaining worth

You can’t call them “good investments” because they inevitably depreciate. But the models in our ranking of the top 10 vehicles with highest resale value do amount to sensible purchases for the way they minimize the dollar losses associated with owning and maintaining a vehicle.
The models [...]

The title to this article is a snowclone. And while many of you don’t know (yet) what a snowclone is, I believe the entertainment value of knowing a little about them almost matches the value of knowing which group of stocks has historically smashed the market’s averages. Before I wander off on my tangent, you [...]

Infomercial king Billy Mays, known for screaming about the wonders of cleaning solutions Kaboom!, OxiClean, and other household products, is now starring in a commercial for what he calls “the most important product I’ve ever endorsed:” health insurance. The bearded salesman started pitching iCan Benefit Group’s “health insurance that you can actually afford” in May [...]

More than half of homeowners pay too much because their property has been wrongly assessed. Here’s how to research and correct mistakes, and how to navigate the appeals process.
You could be paying more than you owe in property taxes.
In a hot market, owners often find themselves facing double, sometimes triple, increases in property taxes, according [...]