TAX PLANNING
We need to distinguish the strategies of deferring tax (paying tax later) and tax-free (income escapes taxation). If you receive income from an ordinary IRA, it is taxed. If you receive income from a ROTH-IRA, and certain conditions are met, the income is received tax-free.
Of course, the Internal Revenue Code espouses several taxing principles and one of those is – matching. With the regular IRS, one usually gets a tax deduction when the money goes in and that’s why the IRS then taxes you on the IRA distributions.
When we help you with tax planning, we must review your marginal tax rate- the top rate at which you are taxed, as well as the transaction under review.
Timing is also crucial- tax planning for the current year should begin as early as possible- do not leave for the month of December. In addition, we may be able to combine tax savings strategies which also boost your retirement planning.
RETIREMENT PLANNING
A tried and true tax & retirement planning idea is the creation of a deferred charitable trust- either a charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT) or a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT). There are also alternatives such as the pooled income trust which functions in similar ways. In all of these strategies, there is also benefit to the charity of your choice.
It is imperative that proper cash flow management, present and future, be taken into account as well as those elder law strategies which will help to reduce cash outlays in retirement years, e.g. LTC insurance.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF TAXES
Whether the firm is helping an individual or a business, we ensure the client understands the different types of taxes which may apply- Examples :
- income taxes – an installment sale will serve to reduce the overall tax liability
- property taxes – ensuring you make use of the state law exemptions such as homestead exemption and/or proper zoning classification
- transfer taxes- real estate – proper planning in transferring real estate to solely-owned business entities, such as real estate into an LLC
- estate and gift taxes – planning with the annual gift exclusion and understanding the $5,000,000 estate/gift tax exemption applicable to years 2011 and 2012