Tax planning

Men and women 35 – 64 with income of $150,000 - $249,000 may represent the ripest sales opportunities for advisors, according to poll by Nationwide Financial.

As we head into the 2013 tax season, advisors should tell clients to be sure they won’t be hit with a Durden-style disallowance

A growing number of the nation’s wealthiest individuals are seeking advice on moving their funds and themselves not only across state lines but across national borders as fears grow over the direction of U.S. tax policy.

The professor of law and taxation at the University of Virginia discusses the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

Financial advisors may have breathed a sigh of relief after lawmakers reached a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, but the next several weeks will bring more debate, and potentially more turmoil, over big-ticket budget items that could dramatically alter the strategies you recommend to clients.

Professor John Grable touched a nerve when he suggested in Financial Planning’s current issue that a mandatory AUM tax on advisors could help make financial planning available to all American families. Actually, he touched a lot of nerves.

The Republican chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Dave Camp, R-Mich., released a draft document Thursday proposing a series of tax reforms for various types of financial derivatives and other financial products, building on work done by his committee over the past two years.

The Internal Revenue Service provided advice to taxpayers Wednesday on dealing with the late opening of tax season on January 30 that could also prove helpful to tax preparers.

The Internal Revenue Service reported that audits of individuals topped 1 million in fiscal year 2012 for the sixth year in a row, a coverage rate of 1.03 percent of all tax returns filed, while audits in the upper income ranges remained substantially higher than other categories.

Recent events make fundamental tax reform, already a heavy lift, much less likely.

The Internal Revenue Service is providing information on some of the retirement plan provisions of the fiscal cliff deal that was signed into law earlier this month.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to introduce a simplified way for small business owners and home-based employees to claim the home office tax deduction.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a long-awaited set of rules for correcting employee retirement plans that fail to meet the requirements of the Tax Code.

Fresh from year-end tax planning meetings with clients, it is time to identify four areas where great tax planning and great financial planning collide, specifically for people accumulating wealth.

“It’s a good time to be an advisor,” said IRA Expert Ed Slott. “There’s a tremendous opportunity now because you have certainty.”

The impact of last week’s tax accord in Congress -- officially known as the American Tax Relief Act of 2012 -- is likely to be far wider and more complex than many have imagined. And many of these complexities will directly impact financial advisors.

In the wake of the newly-passed American Tax Relief Act of 2012, it’s likely many wealthy clients will continue to make large family gifts. If they are giving away hard-to-value assets, they might consider following a tactic from the Wandry case, decided by the Tax Court in 2012.

Tax forms from the federal government and many states may be delayed in the aftermath of the fiscal cliff legislation, one of the largest tax preparation chains warned.

What advisors can still do to protect business owners' assets even though last year is gone.

The U.S. economy has turned the corner and experts see a better year for Wall Street.