IRS Tax Support

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 [...]

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 [...]

Plummeting stock prices can cast a dark cloud over anyone’s finances. However, at tax time, these capital losses can produce a ray of write-off sunshine.

When you sell any pharmaceutical flops or biotech blunders, you can use them to offset gains from more successful ventures — or even a portion of your everyday income.
A capital [...]

There is no excuse for not saving for your future. None.
No one will do it for you, and, besides, investing for your retirement has never been easier. Pick a tax-advantaged plan, contribute the maximum allowed, then sit back and watch your money grow.
OK, it’s a little more complicated than that. You’ll want to keep track [...]

signed a housing bill Wednesday intended to rescue about 15 percent of the cash-strapped homeowners in fear of foreclosure in the next year or so. Early in the morning and out of public view, the president signed it without fanfare in the Oval Office, adding his signature to a measure he once threatened to [...]

The Federal Reserve will issue new rules next week aimed at protecting future homebuyers from dubious lending practices, its most sweeping response to a housing crisis that has propelled foreclosures to record highs. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke of the much-awaited rules in a broader speech Tuesday about the challenges confronting policymakers in trying to [...]

A broad housing rescue package aimed at preventing foreclosures would have the government step in to insure up to $300 billion in new mortgages for struggling homeowners. The plan, designed to stabilize a key sector of the shaky economy, is set for a House vote Wednesday. It would let the Federal Housing Administration insure more [...]