Economics Finance

If you’re interested in beginning to invest in tax sale property, here’s an insider tip that will save you a lot of time and money: skip the tax sale. There are other ways to go about getting tax delinquent property. The tax sale is a big mess, and will cause you more headaches than it’s worth.

First of all, you will need to have a lot of cash on hand if you want to bid and buy. If you’re a winning bidder, you’re required to pay for your new property or lien, in cash, right then and there. You can get started investing in tax sale property with only a few hundred dollars, if that’s all you have, and there’s no good reason to go the tax sale route. If you do have a big amount of cash, even better– but you still won’t want to bid at tax sale.

This is because you’ll frequently find yourself bidding against agents from large investment firms. These companies are simply better equipped and have more money to invest than the average investor– meaning that they can afford to bid a little more than you can, and take a smaller return on their investment than you. It’s rare for the average Joe to even be able to win the bid profitably at tax sale.

Not only that, but if you do somehow end up bidding and winning, it’ll be on a property you haven’t had a chance to inspect. You can’t legally go inside these tax properties beforehand, and anything and everything may be wrong with them. This is a risk few new investors should be willing to take. Nothing will sour you on property investing more quickly than ending up owning a money pit that costs you money rather than makes you money. Continue reading ‘Profit From Tax Sale Property While Avoiding the Tax Sale Altogether’ »

Credit card and unsecured debt piling up can create a snowball effect and several adversities therein. Disrupting any means to budget your bills, increasing fees and minimum monthly payments are hurting Americans nationwide. Credit debt alone is making it harder and harder for consumers to stay afloat, much less get ahead in these trying times. This ongoing crunch on the economy and job instability has created crossroads to crashing points on the road to financial freedom, leaving many Americans in disarray.

In lieu of, there are many ways which you can eliminate your debts and become debt free.

• Credit Counseling
• Debt Settlement
• Bankruptcy

A credit counseling program is also known as a debt management plan. Credit counseling is the process of consolidating all your unsecured debts into one payment plan through an agency where lower, fixed interest rates (APRs) are obtained and late, over limit, and past due fees cease once enrolled. You make a payment each month to the agency and they send payments out to each one of your creditors every month. The creditors still send you statements monthly which show the reduced rates and the payments being made on your behalf by the credit counseling agency. The biggest advantages with this method is the convenience of one monthly payment, a reduction in fees, the stopping of additional fees, and an improved credit score over time from the consecutive monthly payments and continuing balance reductions. Your best bet in this arena is to work with a non-profit agency that you’ve verified with the BBB as a reputable company. Continue reading ‘Pay Off Debt – You Have Options’ »

While transferring assets is a great way to protect your assets and gain eligibility for Medicaid, there is a major disadvantage to asset transfers. When you transfer an asset, you basically give it away. This means that you no longer have control over that asset. Even when you transfer an asset to a trusted family member, they can run the risk of losing the asset or spending it for their own behalf. A better solution is to place the asset in an irrevocable trust. A trust is a legal entity in which one person is named a trustee. The trust holds legal title to the assets. Those who benefit from the trust are known as the beneficiaries. The named trustee must follow all rules associated with the trust. In some cases, the assets in the trust can be counted against Medicaid resource limits. This is why it is imperative to be aware of all rules and regulations regarding trusts and eligibility for the program.

It is also important to know the difference between an irrevocable and a revocable trust. A revocable trust can be changed or rescinded by the individual who created the trust. Since the trust can be changed, Medicaid considers this kind of trust to be an asset. All assets that are in a revocable trust will be considered when determining Medicaid eligibility. In short, when planning for the program, revocable trusts are not useful tools.

Irrevocable trusts of the “income-only” version cannot be changed after they have been created. This type of trust is usually drafted so that the income from the trust can be paid to you for life. The principal cannot be applied to benefit either you or your spouse. When you die, the principal is then paid to your heirs. This allows the funds to be protected while giving you the opportunity to use the income from the trust for living expenses. The principal in this type of trust is not considered a resource for the program’s asset evaluation purposes. However, if the situation changes and you move to a nursing home, the income from the trust will have to be paid to the nursing home. This is one of the disadvantages to an income-only irrevocable trust. Unless the trust is set up correctly, you are also not allowed access to the funds in a trust if you should need them for other purposes. This is why you should always have another source of funds aside from income from the trust. Continue reading ‘Irrevocable Trusts in Medicaid Asset Protection Planning’ »

When people first start up their own businesses, they want to save money right from the start. They may not hire employees until they absolutely have to; they limit their inventory until the need for more arrives. Then they may do their own books and that includes paying their own taxes. Unless you have a lot of experiences with paying and filing business taxes, it would be a great idea to find a tax services company.

Tax services are created to help business owners avoid making some really big and costly mistakes. There are more taxes than you may be able to handle. While it may cost you money to hire a tax services company, in the long run, it will save you money. You may not think so now but think of it this way, are you 100% confident that you will be able to figure out how much value added taxes you have to pay and when you have to pay it?

There are corporation taxes and income taxes and value added taxes. In addition to employee taxes and many other taxes it can be confusing and time consuming. That is why you need to hire a tax services company even if they are just on a part time basis. Continue reading ‘Why Should I Hire a Tax Services Company?’ »

IRS selects around 1.5 million taxpayers in a year and ‘invites’ those to explain inconsistencies in their tax return. How does it select these taxpayers out of 135 million returns filed every year? Well most of the times it applies some criteria to pick a ‘deserving’ taxpayer. Here are some important ones.

1. Mathematical corrections – Usually IRS computers generate these audits. If you have made mistakes while filing your tax return, these computers are most likely to catch you. These are silly mathematical mistakes which you would have avoided easily. Some of these mistakes are – entering incorrect spelling of your name on your tax return, entering incorrect social security number, entering the incorrect status, making a wrong calculations about earned income credit and improper assessment of estimated tax.

Usually IRS assumes that your details are correct and makes the calculation of your tax figures based on them. If there is any additional tax liability, they will add interest and penalties to it and you will be sent a notice demanding such money.

You will have a period of 30 days to contact IRS and schedule an appointment to prove that your original data is correct. Continue reading ‘How You Enter the Cage of Tax Audit’ »