Tax Tips & Stories: How To Deal With The Tax Man

Taxes Category - The Digerati Life

It’s something we usually just worry about once a year and has the same effect on us as that annual visit we make to the health practitioner. Care to guess what it is? It’s the yearly tax filing process, of course! Unlike making money and learning how to spend it wisely, learning how to keep more of it away from the tax man tends to be one of the more overlooked aspects of personal finance. It’s actually one of the less sexy elements of finance, with topics that are typically considered dry, technical, or even boring.

Regardless of what you think about tax management, it’s an important part of proper money management. The more of our income and investments we can preserve and keep away from other entities, the greater our foundation for monetary growth. We therefore use this section to place emphasis on the subject of taxes: from tax planning and preparation to our choices for tax resources, software and professional services.

What concerns do you face when tax season rolls around? How ready are you when the month of April knocks on your door? Taxes take a big bite out of our income and earnings, so what steps can we take to minimize its inevitable effects year after year? Our articles aim to shed more light on tax issues.

Understanding The Alternative Minimum Tax vs The Standard Tax System May 2012 1

Usually, when people talk about the alternative minimum tax, they say that the problem is that it is affecting people it was never intended to affect. Whom, then, WAS the AMT intended to affect? A Brief History Of The Alternative Minimum Tax A precursor to the AMT was enacted in 1969, and the current AMT […]

Facts About Gift & Estate Taxes Mar 2012

It’s better to give than to receive. Yet the giver is taxed and the recipient is not. To the frustration of many, the government’s desire for your money doesn’t stop when you die. If you’re unfamiliar with the specifics of gift and estate tax, you may be confused about why they are being lumped into […]

Free TurboTax Giveaway With TurboTax Coupon Codes (Online Versions) Feb 2012 16

We’ve got another coupon code giveaway, this time, care of TurboTax. Sometimes, handling the tax implications of investment losses, donations, medical expenses and other taxable transactions can be a little complicated to manage. However, if you want to get the most out of your tax deductions and get the refunds that you deserve, you’ll need […]

Should You Invest Pre-Tax or After Tax Dollars? 401K vs Roth IRA Feb 2012 3

In recent years, Roth IRAs have become very popular with investors. The Roth IRA is named after Senator William Roth of Delaware, who sponsored the 1997 legislation that created them. The basic idea behind the Roth IRA is pretty simple — you invest after-tax money into your Roth IRA, and are not taxed on the […]

Free Codes For H&R Block Online Premium (Giveaway) Feb 2012 16

Update: Our H&R Block Online Premium Giveaway is now over. Keep this page bookmarked because we’ll have it again next year! During tax season, we often hold tax related giveaways (in fact, we had an H&R Block tax software offer sometime ago which was well received). This is becoming somewhat of an annual event, which […]

Tax Efficient Investing For Retirement Feb 2012 12

Are you saving for retirement? Consider the tax ramifications. It’s painfully obvious that we have officially entered into a period in which many people work far past the age of retirement — whether it’s because they actually want to or because they have to. With people living to be much older nowadays, “retirement” tends to […]

Free Online Tax Filing, Tax Preparation Services & More Feb 2012 6

It’s the time of year to think about working on your taxes. I just started looking into mine and like any other year, it’s going to be “fun”. Oh Joy. But I expect it to be more “fun” for us this year, given that our small business projects are now our dominant sources of income […]

7 Basic Tax Strategies For Salaried Employees Jan 2012 8

It’s not just how much you make that matters, but also how much you actually keep. There are but few words in the financial vocabulary that strike fear in me, and TAX is one of them. The annual chore of preparing and organizing my financial documents that comes around February or March never fails to […]

2011, 2012 Federal Tax Brackets, Rates & Standard Deductions Jan 2012 8

It’s time once again to check on the tax tables to see whether there have been adjustments. And for 2012, there are indeed some updates, although for this year, they have been pegged to inflation and not the result of policy. Given that this is a presidential election year, the government’s stance is probably to […]