Education tax credits can help offset the costs of paying for your education or costs you pay for an eligible student who is your spouse or a dependent you claim on your tax return. For 2011, the American Opportunity Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit are available to qualified taxpayers who pay expenses for eligible…
It’s taken the country more than 100 years to make the Tax Code as complicated as it stands today. And yet, in clear DC fashion, Congress is making noise about reforming the code… in a mere two and a half months. Ah, the pandering optimism of Congress. The so-called “super committee” of 12 members of…
When you live in Philadelphia, you have to make fun of New Jersey. I think it’s in the City charter or something. And as much as I love Jon Stewart, Springsteen, fresh blueberries and the oh-so-civilized liquor laws, I still can’t help but poke fun at state whose residents identify themselves by exit numbers and…
I need a full time assistant just to manage the kids these days (don’t worry, Mom, I don’t actually have one). School started last week which means that this week, extracurricular activities have started in earnest. In addition to escorting my kids back and forth to dance, gymnastics and soccer, respectively, I have to spend…
I have a terrible confession to make: I never leave the house without my cell phone. Really. I rely on my cell phone for work-related calls while I’m out of the office as well as email and messaging. I use it to check Twitter and post to Facebook, and occasionally check the web. I can…
If you lost a loved one in 2010, my sympathies are with you. If you lost a loved one in 2010 that might have a taxable estate, my sympathies are really with you. The “surefire vote getting” one year repeal of the federal estate tax for 2010 has turned into one of the biggest administrative…
If all goes according to plan, my son will be Penn State University’s starting quarterback in 2025. Why? He happens to be my third child and by the time he starts college, we like to joke that he better have a scholarship lined up. College is expensive. I know this firsthand. Even with scholarships and…
President Obama will send his new jobs creation plan to Congress later today. He’s going to pitch it first in the Rose Garden surrounded by the kinds of folks that make for good press (vets and teachers, for example) and then send it to Congress for consideration. It’s not going to be an easy road….
I wasn’t going to write this post. I thought about it long and hard and I had promised myself that I wouldn’t write it because I didn’t feel that I had anything meaningful to add to the conversation of the day. And I didn’t want to appear self-serving. And I didn’t want this to be…
It’s not just the kids that have to take tests these days. Attorneys, CPAs, doctors, engineers, architects, and nurses must generally pass standardized competency tests in order to practice. You can now add tax professionals to the list. Over the past year, the IRS has made increased oversight of tax professionals a top priority. As a…