First-time and Existing homeowners TAX CREDITS
The Senate approved a measure on Wednesday to extend the current first-time homebuyers tax credit to 2010.  The bill also included expanding the credit to some existing homebuyers...The House approved the bill the following date and the president is to sign the bill today into law.If you were in no rush to buy your first home, or sell your existing one to expand or downsize, pay attention this tax credit.First-time Homebuyers credit is $8,000 on purchases under contract by contract by April 30, 2010 as long as the contract closes by June 2010.  It applies to first homes only and not to second or vacation homes.Certain existing homebuyers q

It has been more ...
It has been more than 3 weeks since I posted anything.  Not that news worthy of posting about is scarce, but few other reasons.  The 2008 official Federal and States Income Tax was 10/15, and since I am a tax professional, I had to take a week long vacation to recover.Now, expect me to post again during the next few days about the latest and greatest personal financial and tax updates....The Tax Chick

IRA Required Minimum Distributions NOT REQUIRED for 2009
In light of the turbulent stock market and its impact on most baby boomers's retirement accounts, the IRS announced that individuals are not required to take out their IRA Required Minimum Distributions in 2009.The announcement came after some individuals had already taken out their distributions for the year, so in order to provide these individuals with the same benefits.  The IRS announced in Notice 2009-82http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-09-82.pdf relief for these individuals.  The 2009 IRA RMD distributed can be rolled over to an IRA or even a Roth IRA as long as it meets these requirements:

One Year after Lehman Brothers’s collapse lessons learned:
Today marked the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the collapse of the financial markets. Lehman Brothers was a company that the Federal Government allowed to fail without leaping to their rescue (as opposed to AIG and Citigroup). This is a decision that many historians will go back and review the ramifications of for a long period. So much happened during this one year, the financial crisis was exacerbated by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, unemployment numbers went up to numbers we have not seen for years, home values continued their decline, credit and financing froze. Many Americans lost their confidence in the financial systems.www.Sma