Members of the U.S. House outperform the average stock-market investor by 6.8%

According the journal Business and Politics, members of the U.S. House outperform the average stock-market investor by 6.8% per annum after compounding…better than hedge-fund superstars.  The authors say, “We find strong evidence that Members of the House have some type of non-public information which they use for personal gain.” And, drum roll please, U.S. Senators get 10.7% per year more than...

Tax Changes for 2011

Provided by Duaine Owings   What’s new? Every year brings changes in tax law, and some of these revisions always seem to affect IRAs. Here is a look at some of the new wrinkles for 2011.   You can’t defer income resulting from a Roth IRA conversion in 2011.   If you converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in 2010, you could opt to divide the income resulting from the conversion between...

Little Known Tax Breaks…

Some of these may provide big savings. Presented by Duaine Owings The Internal Revenue Code is around 700 pages thick – not as long as War and Peace or Remembrance of Things Past, but much drier reading. However, some very nice tax breaks may be found within its pages and amendments. Not all are well-known. Reducing America’s debt. If you write a check to the federal government to help decrease the national...

WHAT COULD A PAYROLL TAX CUT MEAN FOR SOCIAL SECURITY?

    Would it send the wrong signal at the wrong time?   Provided by Duaine Owings  A claim too good to be true? If the recent agreement on taxes forged between President Obama and Congressional Republicans becomes law, payroll taxes would be lowered by 2.0% in 2011. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, that would cost the federal government $111.7 billion. The White House claims this drop in tax...