thisMatter.com › Money

Taxes

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another. — Voltaire
  • Tax Filing Basics
  • How to File Your Taxes for Free
  • Tax Planning
  • Tax Year
  • Recordkeeping for Individuals and Businesses
  • Filing Status
  • Filing Requirements
  • Filing a Tax Return for a Deceased Taxpayer
  • Liability Relief On Joint Returns: Innocent Spouse Relief, Separation of Liability, Equitable Relief, Relief From Liability Arising From Community Property Law, and Injured Spouse Claims for Refund
  • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare)

Income Taxation

The tax code is complex because it is unfair. — wcs
  • Gross Income, Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), and Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI)
  • Tax Formula to Determine Taxable Income from Gross Income
  • Tax Withholding
  • Estimated Tax Payments
  • Tax Penalty for Underpayment of Tax
  • Wages, Salary, and Other Compensation
  • Taxation of Fringe Benefits
  • Fringe Benefits: Health and Accident Coverage, Flexible Spending Arrangements, Health Reimbursement Arrangements, Access Rules and COBRA Coverage
  • Taxation of Fringe Benefits: Company Cars
  • Pensions and Annuities Taxation
  • Other Income
  • Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on Earned Income
  • Kiddie Tax
  • Taxation of Alimony, Separate Maintenance Payments, and Child Support
  • Taxation of Social Security Benefits and Tier 1 Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits
  • Taxation of Gambling Income
  • Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) for Individuals
  • Taxation of Employee Stock Options
  • Taxation of Restricted Stock Compensation
  • Taxation of Canceled Debt, Including Foreclosures and Short Sales
  • Tax Attributes
  • Tax Benefits for Military Personnel
  • Tax-Exempt Entities

Property Sales and Exchanges

  • Tax Basis
  • Property Sales
  • Home Sale Exclusion: Tax Savings on Capital Gain of a Principal Residence
  • Installment Sales Taxation
  • Tax on Lenders of Abandonments, Foreclosures, Repossessions, Voluntary Conveyances, Bad Debts
  • Tax-Free Like-Kind Exchanges of Property (§1031 Exchanges)
  • Tax-Free Exchanges
  • Taxation of Involuntary Conversions

Foreign Income

  • Foreign Income
  • Foreign Earned Income Exclusion
  • Foreign Tax Credit
  • Expatriation Tax
  • United States Taxation of Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Corporations
If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, he should see how bad it is with representation. — Old Farmer's Almanac

Personal Deductions

  • Personal and Dependency Exemptions
  • Qualifying Child, Qualifying Relative, and Qualifying Non-Relative
  • Standard Deduction
  • Itemized Deductions
  • Itemized Deductions For Interest Expenses on Home Mortgages and Home Equity Loans
  • Deductibility of Charitable Contributions
  • Moving Expense Deductions
  • Miscellaneous and Job-Related Deductions
  • Deductions For Casualty and Theft Losses
  • Medical and Dental Expense Deductions
  • Standard Mileage Rate for Deducting Car and Truck Expenses
  • Deductibility of Taxes: State, Local, and Foreign Income Taxes, General Sales Taxes, and Real Estate Taxes

Tax Credits

  • Tax Credits
  • Earned Income Credit (EIC)
  • Child Tax Credit and the Credit for Other Dependents
  • Health Insurance Premium Tax Credit
  • Credit for Child and Dependent Care Expenses
  • Credit for The Elderly and Disabled
  • Education Tax Credits: American Opportunity Credit, Lifetime Learning Credit
  • Adoption Credit for Qualified Adoption Expenses
  • Retirement Savings Contribution Credit (Saver's Credit)
  • Foreign Tax Credit (FTC)
  • Residential Energy Credits

Educational Tax Benefits

  • Scholarships, Fellowships, Grants, and Tuition Reductions
  • Education Tax Credits: American Opportunity Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit
  • Student Loan Interest Deduction; Student Loan Cancellations and Repayment Assistance
  • Coverdell Education Savings Account
  • Qualified Tuition Programs (529 Plans)
  • Employer-Provided Educational Assistance
  • Business Deductions for Work-Related Education
  • Tax Benefits of Using Early IRA Distributions to Pay for Education
  • Education Savings Bonds Program

Other Tax Topics

  • Statute of Limitations For Tax Penalties and Refunds
  • Private Letter Rulings and Tax Opinions
  • Tax Penalties
  • Reporting Foreign Financial Assets

Retirement and Health Plans

Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. — Herbert Hoover
  • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare)
  • Health Savings Accounts (HSA)
  • Retirement Plans
  • Qualified Retirement Plans
  • Types of Retirement Plans: Traditional and Roth IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, SIMPLE 401(k)s, Simplified Employee Pensions; Safe Harbor 401(k)s, Traditional and Roth 401(k)s, Profit-Sharing Plans; Defined-Benefit Plans
  • Unrelated Business Taxable Income (UBTI)
  • Traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
  • IRA Distributions
  • Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
  • Roth IRAs
  • Retirement Savings Contribution Credit (Saver's Credit)
  • SIMPLE IRAs
  • Simplified Employee Pension Plans (SEP)
  • 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) Retirement Plans, SIMPLE 401(k) Plans, Safe Harbor 401(k) Plans
  • Solo 401(k) Plans
  • Designated Roth Accounts
  • Net Unrealized Appreciation (NUA) of Employer Stock
  • Lump-Sum Distributions
  • Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans
  • Types of Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans
  • Employee Stock Ownership Plans

Setting Up, Administering, and Terminating Retirement Plans

  • Retirement Plan Fiduciaries
  • Retirement Plan Setup and Administration
  • Terminating a Retirement Plan

Taxation of Investments

  • Deductibility of Investment Expenses
  • Taxation of Interest Income
  • Imputed Interest on Below-Market Loans
  • Taxation of Dividends
  • Capital Gains and Losses
  • Holding Periods For Property
  • Net Investment Income Tax (3.8% Medicare Surtax)
  • Taxation of Security Transactions
  • Tax Benefits of Professional Trader Status
  • Small Business Stock Sales and Exchanges
  • Stock Redemptions
  • Taxation of Bond Income
  • Taxation of Options and Convertible Securities
  • Taxation of Mutual Funds
  • Constructive Sales of Appreciated Financial Positions
  • Taxation of Short Sales
  • Tax Loss Harvesting and Wash Sale Rules
  • Real Estate Tax Benefits
  • Passive Activity: Material Participation Tests
  • At-Risk Limitation Rules
  • Passive Activity Rules
  • Rental Income: Active or Passive
  • Rental Income and Deductions
  • Real Estate Investments Taxation
  • Deductibility of Real Estate Rental Losses

Business Taxes

  • Business Entities: Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, Limited Liability Companies, S Corporations, and C Corporations
  • Business Entities: Pros and Cons
  • Business Startup and Organizational Expenses
  • Qualified Joint Venture Election for Married Business Co-Owners
  • Business Income
  • Self-Employment Tax
  • 20% Qualified Business Income Deduction
  • Accounting Methods: Cash, Accrual, and Hybrid
  • Tax Year and Accounting Periods
  • Accounting Methods for Long-Term Contracts: Completed Contract Method, Percentage of Completion Method
  • Home Office Deduction
  • Simplified Option for Claiming the Home Office Deduction
  • Deductions for Repairs, Maintenance, and Capital Improvements for Businesses
  • Actual Expense Method for Deducting Car and Truck Expenses
  • Travel Expense Deductions
  • Meals, Entertainment, and Gift Deductions
  • Business Deductions for Rent and Lease Payments
  • Deducting Nonbusiness and Business Bad Debts
  • Net Operating Losses (NOLs)
  • Hobby Rules May Limit Claimable Losses from Sideline Businesses
  • General Business Credit
  • Taxation of Business Sales
  • Domestic Production Activities Deduction

Employees

  • Employment Taxes
  • Employer Deductions for Compensation
  • Employee Expense Reimbursements: Accountable and Nonaccountable Plans
  • Tax Advantages of Family Employment
  • Tax Classifications For Workers: Employees, Independent Contractors, Statutory Employees, and Statutory Nonemployees
  • Misclassifying Workers as Independent Contractors
  • Household Employment Taxes (Nanny Tax)

Depreciation and Other Cost Recovery Methods

  • Cost Recovery Methods: Depreciation, Amortization, and Depletion
  • Depreciation
  • Amortization
  • Section 179 Deduction
  • Listed Property
  • Section 1231 Assets
  • Deducting Business Property and Improvements as Current Expenses

Real Estate

  • Rental Income: Active or Passive
  • Rental Income and Deductions
  • Deductibility of Real Estate Rental Losses
  • Real Estate Investments Taxation
  • Taxation of Real Estate Rights Transactions: Lease Cancellations, Real Estate Options, Easements, and Covenants
  • Low-Income Housing and Rehabilitation Tax Credits
  • Tax Consequences for the Lender of Abandonments, Foreclosures, Repossessions, Voluntary Conveyances, and Bad Debts

Partnerships and Corporations

  • Partnerships
  • Partnership Distributions, Inside and Outside Basis
  • Partnership Interest Sale
  • Limited Liability Companies
  • S Corporations
  • S Corporation Distributions
  • Suspended Losses from the Disposition of an Interest in a Pass-Through Entity
  • Family Businesses
  • C Corporations
  • Personal Service Corporations
  • Corporate Distributions
  • Corporate Accumulation Penalty Taxes
  • Controlled Corporate Groups
  • Consolidated Corporate Tax Returns
  • Permanent and Temporary Differences between Book Income and Taxable Income for Partnerships and Corporations
  • Corporate Acquisitions and Mergers
  • State and Local Business Taxes
  • Multistate-Business Taxation
  • International Business Taxation
  • Subpart F Income of Controlled Foreign Corporations
  • Transfer Pricing
  • Sourcing of Income and Deductions in International Business and Investment Transactions
  • United States Taxation of Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Corporations
  • Tax Consequences of Foreign Currency Transactions
Tax complexity is a kind of tax. — Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee

Gratuitous Transfer Taxes

The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. — Will Rogers
Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. — Herbert Hoover
  • Gratuitous Transfer Taxes (aka Wealth Transfer Taxes)
  • Federal Gift Tax: Overview
  • Gross Estate
  • Estate Taxes
  • Generation-Skipping Transfer Taxes
  • Gift, Estate, and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Calculations
  • Deceased Spousal Unused Exclusion (DSUE) Portability
  • Reducing Gift, Estate, and Generation-Skipping Taxes
  • Why the Estate Tax?
  • Taxation of Trusts and their Beneficiaries
  • Tax Advantages of Charitable Trusts
  • Split-Interest Purchase of Property
  • Intrafamily Loans
  • Private Annuities
  • Sale or Gift Leasebacks
  • Buy-Sell Agreements
  • Using Corporate Stock Redemptions to Pay Estate Taxes
  • Personal Holding Company

Special Tax Topics

  • Tax Structure: Tax Base, Tax Rate, Proportional and Progressive Taxation
  • Tax Policy Objectives
  • Tax Law
  • Tax Incidence: How The Tax Burden Is Shared Between Buyers and Sellers
  • Deadweight Loss of Taxation
  • Types of Taxes

Tax Policy

  • Unfair Taxation: Some Examples
  • Why Are the Rich Getting $9.2 Million Government Handouts?
  • Double Taxation
  • Are Wealth Taxes Constitutional?
  • Historical Tax Notes

How to Invest in Bonds for Maximum Profit shows how you can invest in bonds to maximize your profits, especially when interest rates are high, as they are now.

Imagine if you could pick only stocks that would rise the most. Well, as far as I know, there is no sure way to do that with stocks, but there is a way to do that with bonds. This book will show you how, and it will show real examples of how this works and how much you can potentially profit, and how bonds, at times, can even be better than stocks. This book will also show the best way to combine investments in bonds with investments in stocks.

The Pauper's Money Book shows how you can manage your money to greatly increase your standard of living.

  • Save, invest, and earn more money.
  • Get out of debt.
  • Increase your credit score.
  • Learn to negotiate successfully.
  • Manage time effectively.
  • Invest for maximum results with a minimum of risk.
  • Minimize taxes.
  • Earn tax-free income.
  • Earn more from a career or from running a business.
  • Privacy Policy for thismatter.com
  • Cookies are not used by this website, except for people in the European Economic Area, where a cookie is stored to indicate they have seen the GDPR message, but Google uses cookies to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information is shared about your use of this site with Google. Details, including opt-out options, are provided in the Privacy Policy. Note that opt-out choices are also stored in cookies.
  • Privacy Policy – Privacy & Terms – Google: You can control and delete any information collected by Google on this page, including any information obtained from users of this website.
  • How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services – Privacy & Terms – Google
  • WebChoices: Digital Advertising Alliance's Consumer Choice Tool for Web US: This tool gives you information and options to opt-out of certain ads and/or their collection of data using the browser you are now using. These choices must be made for each browser you use.
  • YourOnlineChoices.eu - Your ad choices: For Europeans, use this site to control your online behavioral advertising preferences and to get more information about online options for ads.
  • Send email to thismatter.com for suggestions and comments! Be sure to include the words no spam in the subject. If you do not include the words, the email will be deleted automatically.
  • Information is provided 'as is' and solely for education, not for trading purposes or professional advice.
  • All articles on this site were written by William C. Spaulding
  • Copyright © 1982 - 2025 by William C. Spaulding
  • Author Website: WilliamSpaulding.com
  • Books by William Spaulding:
    • How to Invest in Bonds for Maximum Profit
      • Imagine if you could pick only stocks that would rise the most. Well, as far as I know, there is no sure way to do that with stocks, but there is a way to do that with bonds. This book will show you how, and it will show real examples of how this works and how much you can potentially profit, and how bonds, at times, can even be better than stocks. This book will also show the best way to combine investments in bonds with investments in stocks.
    • The Pauper's Money Book
      • Manage money better to improve your life by saving more, investing more, and earning more.
    • Trickle-Up Economics
      • Describes the best tax policy for any country to maximize happiness and economic wealth, based on simple economic principles.
    • Economics: An Illustrated Introduction to Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, International Economics, and Behavioral Economics
      • An introductory textbook on Economics, lavishly illustrated with full-color illustrations and diagrams, and concisely written for fastest comprehension.