Congress was able to put together a compromised plan of the economic stimulus plan yesterday. The final price tag is $789.5 billion.
Trying to follow the stimulus plan is like following a moving target these days… but here’s what we know today!
Home Buyer Tax Credit
Many of you were waiting with high hopes for the [...]

Posted February 12, 2009 in Taxes by Madison | 10 Comments

Here’s the 2008 tax limits, credits, exemptions, deductions, phase-out and exclusion numbers all in one place! It is a good reference and will come in handy at tax time. Last year, the list was a popular reference sheet, so I thought it would be good to publish it again.

Exemptions
$ 3,500

Standard Deduction

Single
$ 5,450

Married Filing Jointly
$ 10,900

Married [...]

Posted February 10, 2009 in Taxes by Madison | 2 Comments

Update: The $15,000 home buyer tax credit was eliminated in the compromised bill. It’s now an $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.
A reader, Keith, left the following comment about the $7500 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit:
I just read that the $7500 home buyer tax credit is going to be jumping up [...]

Posted February 5, 2009 in Hot Topics, Taxes by Madison | 11 Comments

How much money do you have to make to file taxes? That seems to be a popular question these days, especially for people that made less money last year due to the economy.
Income Requirements
For the 2008 tax year, you need to file taxes if your gross income meets the minimum income for your filing status [...]

Posted February 5, 2009 in Taxes by Madison | 5 Comments

TaxCut. I decided. I bought my copy of TaxCut last week. I picked the TaxCut Premium Federal + State + E-file version since I wanted the state software too.
I switched back to TaxCut this year after a brief hiatus using TaxAct last year; I’m happy to be back!
TaxCut Features
Even though the final updates won’t [...]

Posted January 5, 2009 in Taxes by Madison | 2 Comments