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Posted By Lineweaver Financial Group
May 23, 2024 Category: Taxes, Social Security, CDs, Retirement

Recently, we've been hearing from people who have been enrolled in Social Security, seeing their taxes go up, and not understanding why. There are ways to keep more of your retirement income, but first, let’s look at how it can be taxed. We know that Social Security benefits aren’t tax-free. In fact, up to 85% of the benefits you receive each year could be subject to tax, depending on your household income. Moreover, 100% of your withdrawals from traditional IRAs and traditional 401(k)s will likely be considered taxable income. When making these withdrawals, we work closely with our clients to ensure they’re taking what they need but not enough to push them into the next tax bracket. We’ve recently encountered individuals who took advantage of high interest rates by putting their money in CDs or money market accounts. The interest on these is taxed at the same federal income tax rate as the money you receive from paid work, which is why people are seeing their income tax rates jump into the next bracket. That's why it's crucial to collaborate with a tax professional to develop a strategy to mitigate that sudden increase, just like we would with IRAs or 401(k)s. Furthermore, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is set to sunset on Jan 1, 2026, which could exacerbate the problem further. When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 ends, this means tax rates will revert to their previous higher levels. The act doubled the standard deduction and

Posted By Lineweaver Financial Group
January 04, 2024 Category: Resolutions, Finance, Goals, Taxes

We’ve been working with private and corporate clients for nearly 30 years. Every year at this time, we meet new clients who want to drastically overhaul their finances, and set themselves up for increased wealth in the New Year. We’ve put a list of 5 resolutions that we always share and that you can put to work for you, too. Resolution No. 1 First things first. The base of any good financial plan is insurance because it helps you control risk. You can have the best financial plan in the world, but if something happens to you or your family, you need to be protected to keep your plan in solid footing.  You first want to take the time to make sure all your insurances are in proper order. This includes Life insurance, disability insurance, and even property and casualty. Because we specialize in working with retirees, long-term care is especially important to our clients. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 70% of people aged 65 or older are likely to need long-term care at some point.  Finally, you may want to consider an umbrella policy, especially if you have rental or vacation homes.  Resolution No. 2 Your financial goals, both long and short term, should be driven by your personal goals – whether that’s providing for children and grandchildren, sending them to college, passing the family business to the next generation, or preparing for your own retirement and the traveling you want to do, you should

Posted By Lineweaver Financial Group
May 17, 2021 Category: Real Estate, Economy, Taxes, Eductional

With real the real estate market at an all-time high, we are going to go over 1031 exchanges, which can help you defer or even eliminate real estate taxes. Simply put, a 1031 exchange is a swap of one investment property for another that allows capital gains taxes to be deferred. The term gets its name from IRS code Section 1031. But – and this is important – you have to begin this process, and the 1031 must be in place before sell the investment property. Then, from that closing date, the person selling the investment property has 45 days to identify the replacement property to buy and has 180 days to close on the new property. To obtain 100% tax-deferral, the exchanger needs to reinvest all the net proceeds from the sale and replace any debt paid off with either new debt or new cash. Most exchangers buy a property of equal or greater value than the old property. These are often called “like kind” exchanges. Remember, exchanges are very flexible. An exchanger can sell any type of real estate used in a trade or business or for investment and replace it with any type of property used in a trade or business or for investment. You can sell residential property and buy commercial property. You can sell an office building and buy a shopping mall. The rules are very flexible. Let’s say that you bought a property for $400,000 15 years ago, and now it’s worth $700,000. Some people might think you only have to pay taxes on the $300,000 gain

Posted By Lineweaver Financial Group
December 27, 2019 Category: Tax Planning, End Of Year Taxes, Taxes

It can be challenging to think through all the tax planning you need to do by the end of the year. There’s a lot to consider, and although it may seem early to think about taxes, now is the perfect time to make changes for tax filing after the new year. I always tell my clients, call me well before the new year, so we have time to plan ahead. After the new year, there’s nothing you can do about last year’s taxes.   One of the strategies our clients find most helpful are bunching deductions. Essentially, that means accelerating your write-offs into one year to try to get above the standard deduction. That was a challenge for many people last year since it was the first time for all of us filing under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, but this year the only change is a slightly increased standard deduction over last year - $24,400 for Married Filing Jointly, and $12,200 if you’re single. And, by bunching charitable gifts, medical expenses, or even your state and local taxes into one year, you may be able to realize significant savings. Just keep in mind real estate and state and local taxes are still capped at $10,000.   Another useful strategy is what’s call the Backdoor Roth. Essentially, this is a way for people with high incomes to sidestep the Roth’s income limits. Basically, you fund a traditional IRA and then convert it. That’s good news because it then allows your money to grow tax-free. But, it can be complicat

Posted By Lineweaver Financial Group
May 02, 2019 Category: Taxes, Trump, Portfolio

There’s been a lot of confusion this year, as we all file for the first time under the New Trump Tax Law. Some people are finding that their returns are lower, or that deductions they’ve always depended on have gone away. The biggest cause that we see for a lower return is a lack of tax strategy and planning in advance – most strategies have to be in place by the end of the tax year – not at filing time.  There are estate planning implications as well – for example, if you’re considering a ROTH conversion, which can be a great strategy, there used to be q “do-over” period you had in case something happened after the fact, or if you changed your mind. However, that’s no longer the case. There are two parts to this; 1) being proactive, and 2) investing for tax efficiency, because taxes have the ability to take the largest bite out of your portfolio and your returns, and, it’s important to remember that it’s not what you make – it’s what you keep. That means working with a team to build a portfolio that takes advantage of taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-exempt accounts, understanding your tax bracket under the new law, and choosing investments that are tax-efficient, and, as much as possible, preparing you for the volatility and uncertainty that have been rampant in the markets. While coordinating financial plans properly is always challenging, it is especially challenging today given with in

Posted By Lineweaver Financial Group
April 18, 2019 Category: Coordination, Tax, Legal, Insurance, Financial, Wills, Estate Planning, Taxes, Retirement

  At the Lineweaver Companies, we believe a team approach to coordinating all your financial, legal, tax, and insurance needs helps save you time, money and worry.   For example, we had clients who were both close to retirement, and unfortunately the husband had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The first thing we did was to work with them to make sure his pension was triggered in such a way that the wife could receive a greater lifetime benefit - almost a million more dollars than she would have otherwise received.   At the same time, in this sort of situation, you have to consider powers of attorney – and other basic estate planning documents that everyone should have, like wills, and even if trusts make sense for your particular situation.   There were also huge student loan balances of more than $120,000. But, because they kept the loans entirely in the father’s name, when he passed, the debt was forgiven. But what many people don’t know is that the forgiveness of debt – in this case student loan debt - is considered income by the IRS – and therefore taxable. As you can imagine, in this case it was significant: an additional $40,000. However, we were able to work with the family and the IRS to get the entire amount forgiven as well – so they ended up having the debt and the tax bill forgiven.   Given the pension payouts and their savings, they had significant assets that needed to be managed eff

Posted By Lineweaver Financial Group
March 22, 2018 Category: Tariffs, Taxes, NAFTA, Trading

If 2017 lulled market participants to sleep, then the turbulent start to 2018 has been a wake-up call. Just when the dust seemed to settle on February’s bout of market volatility, investors are now contemplating the impact of a proclamation authorized on March 9th to impose 25% and 10% import tariffs on steel and aluminum respectively. Canada and Mexico are temporarily excluded contingent upon renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The President stressed flexibility to adjust tariffs for specific countries and left the door open to more tariffs. This is sure to be a fluid issue and will take time to play out. We will monitor the situation to assess reactions from U.S. trading partners. Key Points: President Trump has persistently concentrated on policies aimed to incentivize corporations to invest domestically. In January 2017, President-elect Trump proposed a Border Adjustment Tax (BAT) that was eventually scrapped. Four days after his inauguration, President Trump met with executives from the big three U.S. automakers to discuss how to bring automotive manufacturing jobs to America and discourage outsourcing from Mexico. At that time, President Trump threatened to impose a 35% tariff on imported vehicles, also eventually scrapped.   Weak U.S. dollar policy could be an alternative to tariffs. Immediately following his meeting with President Trump, Ford CEO Mark Field told reporters “the mother of all trade barriers is currency

Posted By Lineweaver Financial Group
February 21, 2018 Category: RMD, IRA, Distribution, Taxes

At age 70 you need to be aware of these rules.  If you have retirement accounts, the IRS has allowed you to have assets growing in those accounts without paying income taxes on the income or gains. At age 70 ½, the IRS wants to begin taxing those accounts by making you take money out, whether you want to or not. Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are one of those facts of life that many dread, and that make life even more confusing and complicated. Let’s try and reduce the confusion. For retirement account owners, the RMD rules apply to Traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, qualified plans like 401ks, 403(b)  and governmental 457(b) accounts. The RMD rules do not apply to Roth IRA owners, but they do apply to Roth IRA beneficiaries. If a non-spouse inherits a Roth IRA, they are required to take RMDs no matter what their age is, just like the non-spouse beneficiary of all retirement accounts. A word of caution: if you inherit an IRA from someone other than your spouse, you must begin taking RMDs the year after the death of the owner, not when you reach 70 ½. Penalty for non-compliance, 50% of the amount you should have withdrawn! Generally, your first RMD is due for the year you reach age 70.5. However, you need not start receiving distributions from your retirement account until your required beginning date (RBD). Generally, your RBD is April 1 of the year following the year you reach age 70.5. If you are still employed at age 70.5 and you parti