Medical Expense Deduction Tax Relief
It’s only taken Congress 34 years, but the threshold for claiming a medical expense deduction has finally been made permanent. For 2021 and forevermore, medical expenses above 7.5% of Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is the law of the land if you itemize on your federal tax return and your total itemized deductions are greater than the standard deduction. For the [...]
5 States Lowering Taxes in 2021
To modify an old journalism adage, “When a state raises taxes, that’s expected. But when a state lowers taxes, that’s news!” And, believe it or not, there are some states doing just that in 2021. Yes, across the United States taxes are still going up in lots of places. According to the Tax Foundation, 26 states and the District of [...]
The Role of the Living Will
Go to an attorney for a Will and you’ll get not one document, but several—the Will, a Durable Power of Attorney, a Health Care Power of Attorney, and what may be the most overlooked and under-appreciated of the documents, a Living Will. The Will lays out what happens after you die. The other three documents focus on what happens while [...]
What To Do After Your Spouse Dies: A Checklist
The wife of a friend of mine passed away recently. He’s going through the grief and loneliness you’d expect after being married 53 years. And now he has a new challenge, one I’ve seen with so many other widows and widowers—dealing with the long list of legal and financial items that come up after the death of a spouse. The [...]
2020 Year-End Financial Checklist
The end of the year is always a good time to do a little financial maintenance, take advantage of last-minute tax deductions, and get your financial house in order for next year. Here’s a checklist of some items to consider. Tax-Loss Harvesting Do you have losses in your investment portfolio? It may be to your advantage to take them [...]

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