An interesting article in the syndicated column of Scott Burns suggests that it may be a wise strategy for those at or around age 70 to withdraw from Social Security and reapply to increase their benefit. Is this a Social Security loophole, a great deal, a trap, or just another good arrow in the financial planner's quiver?Read More...
A new study from Sun Life Financial suggests that retirees may have a consistent sequence of extra spending goals throughout their retirement years. Of course, practicing financial planners have acknowledged for years that retirement spending isn't perfectly level from year to year, but Sun Life's new study suggests that there are some consistent patterns that can be gleaned.
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Last month, the Treasury announced that they were significantly reducing the availability of Series EE and I savings bonds, decreasing the maximum allowable purchase from at $5,000 per Social Security number per year (reduced from $30,000), and the new limits took effect on January 1, 2008!
Taxpayers awaiting a refund may be delayed in their ability to file early and receive that refund, due to Congress' late passage of an AMT patch - but apparently, the delay won't impact as many taxpayers as first feared.
In its list of required plan amendments for 2008, the IRS has failed to include any mandatory requirement that plans provide for non-spouse beneficiary rollovers to IRAs. This implies a change in position from their Interim and Discretionary Amendments release issued in the fall of 2007, which suggested that the IRS intended to acquiesce in advance of a Congressional Technical Corrections bill that non-spouse beneficiary rollovers from employer retirement plans to inherited IRAs would be mandatory, as covered earlier in this blog.
The IRS has just released Revenue Ruling 2008-5, cracking down on a perceived loophole in the so-called "wash sale" rules where an individual sells a security at a loss and purchases a substantially similar security in his/her IRA. And unlike a typical wash sale where the rules simply temporarily disallow the loss, in the case of a wash sale with an IRA the loss will be permanently forfeited under the new rules!Read More...
