vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Of course a higher tax rate will impact my decision on whether to invest or not. The return may still be positive but a higher tax rate could very well drop the returns below the cost of capital. There's a nice little box for the tax rates in any financial model for a reason.
There is no tax code I know that would grant you such a privilege. And it just isn't practicable. In your examples, you always sold your product and were thus able, in retrospect, to give a value to your work. What if you don't sell your product? What if in one case your worked hour is reimbursed with one price, with the next product at another (i.e. difference in margin)? No, it won't work like that.  And by the way, I think you might have got some definitions upside down. What you want is a salary that your own company pays out to yourself and you can deduct from other profits. But as long as you can't afford to pay yourself a salary, and you don't have access to investors who are willing to front you the money, the time invested is your personal investment and cannot be deducted anywhere - though it might pay off nicely in the long run. That's the risk entrepreneurs take.
You can defer RRSP deductions like you've suggested. Here's an article from the CBC about it: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/taxseason/story/2010/03/15/f-taxseason-delay.html
Yes, this extra income would be taxed at your marginal rate because it is increasing your total income. This does not necessarily apply to all income, however. Capital gains are taxed at a different rate. Depending on the amount of extra work, you may wish to consider setting up a corporation. Corporations are taxed entirely differently. This would also give you the opportunity to write off far more of your expenses, but be aware of double taxation. Investopedia has a good article on double taxation. The issue is that the corporation must pay taxes on the revenue and then, when you take out the money either as salary or dividends, you personally will pay tax. It may leave you better off, even with the double taxation. Dividends are taxed at a lower rate than your marginal tax rate, generally. And you can write off much more inside a corporation. If considering this, talk to an accountant and discuss your expected revenue from consulting. The accountant should be able to quantify the costs and benefits.
Keep in mind, when talking about other deductions, such as mortgage interest, you need to look at your overall situation and whether the taxpayer is near the standard deduction amount. For some, their interest deduction and property tax are below the standard deduction, and therefore, they'd not itemize.
Using US tax code, given that your profits are less than 250K, given that you lived in that home over two years, then yes the 150K is tax free.   That is your money in the US. Note:  I won't get into all of the specifics but basically you need to live somewhere 2 years.  You get 250K per person, up to 500K.  Most enhancements count as money towards the home.  So most/all of your 12k should be discounted.  However there is a lot of fine print in this and a lot of interpretation on what is normal upkeep and what is an enhancement.
Generally this is simply a matter of the business paying taxes on the sale (income), balanced by a credit (charitable deduction), which eventually adds up to their not paying taxes on money they collected in order to pass it along to the charity. Note that because the business is taking the deduction on that donation, you can't take a deduction on the charitable portion of your purchase.
It's called bartering and the IRS has a page titled Four Things to Know About Bartering. The summary is -  The bottom line is this is taxable.
Yes, anything that lowers your MAGI will help you avoid the cliff, and all above the line deductions like HSA/IRA contributions do so. I'd prioritize maxing HSA contributions over maxing IRA contributions, but that's another topic. Here's a good article on avoiding the cliff, but you've already got it figured correctly: Stay Off the Obamacare ACA Premium Subsidy Cliff Here's what goes into MAGI for ACA purposes (from healthcare.gov): Your MAGI is the total of the following for each member of your   household who’s required to file a tax return: You mentioned traditional IRA, and that's important since Roth IRA contributions do not lower AGI.
In the terms of profit, you're most likely not going to make any. The other posters had good suggestions about donating and I say the same.   The fact that you had no business insurance leads me to believe that you may just have an expensive hobby and not an actual business. Talk to your accountant/tax preparer and see what and how much loss can be deducted, although that doesn't help in the present.   This is a hard lesson to learn but I hope it sticks. **Always** have business insurance, especially in an area such as yours where hurricanes are relatively normal. It's absurdly foolish and unacceptable not to have insurance.   I hope all works out.
Yes, you can depreciate gifts to your business subject to the special rules in § 1011 and Regulation § 1.1011–1 and 1.167(g)–1. It is dual basis property so when you sell the item your gain/loss basis will be different. Adjusted basis of the donor for gain, FMV on the date received for the loss. Minus any depreciation you add, of course, in both cases.
Buying capital assets doesn't immediatley reduce a company's profits. They can get allowances for it but the assets are written down over a number of years   Edit: two comments below mine were deleted which fairly called me out for amazon's high capital investment policy to which I reaponded:  Fine I've had a few drinks. All I meant was capital doesn't directly reduce profits in most instances. Large investments like amazon would. You are right. But for Joe bloggs limited it doesn't. I had in mind the accountant the movie where one line Affleck says confuses capital and revenue and it stuck with me that a lot of people thought this. Didn't mean to have a go.
you either tell your financial department about them (e.g. I used to get a student's tax discount), or you file them separately. But you don't have to file anything by default.  That is a comment connected to the question.  In the united states you can almost achieve this. 90% of the numbers on my tax form are automated. The W-2s are sent to the IRS, the 1099-s for my non retirement accounts are also sent. The two biggest items that take time are charities, and the educational benefits. Nobody has to claim every deduction they are entitled to. They must claim all the income, and decide to take the standard deduction. It would probably take less than an hour to finish the families taxes: both federal and state.
To me, the lower tax rate for capital gains is largely due to governments encouraging economic activity. Note that investments usually come from your normal income, which is already taxed. Capital gains tax is essentially punishing people who take the extra effort to put their money into work. If the tax rate is high, it would definitely cause people to rethink about investing, thus slowing the general economy down.
"There is nothing legal you can do in the United States to avoid the tax burden of income earned as an employee other than offsetting it with pre-tax contributions (which it sounds like you're already doing), making charitable contributions, or incurring investment losses (which is cutting off your nose to spite your face).  So that $660K can't be helped. As for the $80K in stock dividends, you could move those investments into ""growth"" companies rather than ""value"" companies.  Growth companies are those that pay less in dividends, where the primary increase in wealth occurs only in share price increase.  This puts off your tax bill until you finally sell your shares, and (depending on how the tax laws are at that time) your tax bill will be lower on those capital gains than they are currently on these dividends. Regarding rental income I know nothing, but I think you're entitled to depreciate your property's value over time and count that against the taxes you owe on the rents.  And you can deduct all the upkeep expenses.  As with employment income, intentionally incurring rental losses to lower your tax bill is not logical:  for every dollar you earn, you only have to give about 50 cents to the government, whereas for every dollar you lose, you've lost a dollar."
"You're right about your suspicions. I'm not a professional (I suggest you talk to a real one, a one with CPA, EA or Attorney credentials and license in your State), but I would be very cautious in this case. The IRS will look at all the facts and circumstances to make a claim, but my guess would be that the initial claim would be for this to be taxable income for your husband. He'd have to prove it to be otherwise. It does seem to be related to his performance, and I doubt that had they not known him through his employment, they'd give him such a gift. I may be wrong. So may be an IRS Revenue Officer. But I'd bet he'd think the same. Did they give ""gifts"" like that to anyone else? If they did - was it to other employees or they gave similar gifts to all their friends and family? Did those who gave your husband a gift file a gift tax return? Had they paid the gift tax? Were they principles in the partnership or they were limited partners (i.e.: not the ones with authority to make any decision)? Was your husband instrumental in making their extraordinary profit, or his job was not related to the profits these people made? These questions are inquiring about the facts and circumstances of the transaction. Based on what he can find out, and other potential information, your husband will have to decide whether he can reasonably claim that it was a gift. Beware: unreasonable claims lead to equally unreasonable penalties and charges. IRS and your State will definitely want to know more about this transaction, its not an amount to slide under the radar. This is not a matter where you can rely on a free opinions written by amateurs who don't know the whole story. You (or, rather, your husband) are highly encouraged to hire a paid professional - a CPA, EA (enrolled agent) or tax attorney with enough experience in fighting gift vs income characterization issues against the IRS (and the State, don't forget your State). An experienced professional may be able to identify something in the facts and the circumstances of the situation that would lead to reducing the tax bill or shifting it to the partners, but it is not something you do on your own."
Now i want to get this money in my new UK bank account, does this mean that gov will take taxes from this money as well. Yes that is income and you have to pay tax on that. But it might be a bit complicated than that, so I would ask you to call up HMRC or visit an accountant or maybe ask the finance people of your employer. Also one of my family members send us money every few months and will send to this bank from now on, does taxes also apply on this? See the HMRC page about capital gains tax on gifts: You won't have to pay Capital Gains Tax when you give a gift to your   husband, wife or civil partner - as long as both of the following   apply: It's useful to keep a note of what the asset cost you. Your spouse or   civil partner may need this to work out their Capital Gains Tax when   they dispose of the asset. Example: Mr B lives with his wife and gives her an antique table that   he bought for £12,000 in 2003. Mrs B spends £500 restoring the table,   eventually selling it for £20,000.  Her total costs are £12,500 (£500 plus Mr B's original cost £12,000). Mrs B's   gain is £7,500 (£20,000 less £12,500). When you make a gift to a family member or other person you're   connected with, you'll need to work out the gain or loss. This doesn't   apply to gifts you make to your spouse or civil partner. This also applies if you dispose of an asset to them in any other way   - for example, you sell it to them for a low price. A 'connected person' in this context is someone such as your brother,   sister, child, parent, grandparent, mother-in-law or business partner.   Follow the link below for more information about connected people and   Capital Gains Tax. You must get a valuation of the asset at the time you made the gift.   Use this value in place of any amount you received for the asset to   work out your gain or loss. If you gave the asset away, then of course   the amount you received for it will be nothing. If you make a loss you can only deduct the loss from gains you make on   gifts or other disposals to the same person.
"US federal tax law distinguishes many types of income. For most people, most of their income is ""earned income"", money you were paid to do a job. Another category of income is ""capital gains"", money you made from the sale of an asset. For a variety of reasons, capital gains tax rates are lower than earned income tax rates. (For example, it is common that much of the gain is not real profit but inflation. If you buy an asset for $10,000 and sell it for $15,000, you pay capital gains tax on the $5,000 profit. But what if prices in general since you bought the asset have gone up 50%? Then your entire profit is really inflation, you didn't actually make any money -- but you still have to pay a tax on the paper gain.) So if you make your money by investing in assets -- buying and selling at a profit -- you will pay lower taxes than if you made the same amount of money by receiving a salary from a job, or by running a business where you sell your time and expertise rather than an asset. But money made from assets -- capital gains -- is not tax free. It's just a lower tax. It MIGHT be that when combined with other deductions and tax credits this would result in you paying no taxes in a particular year. Maybe you could avoid paying taxes forever if you can take advantage of tax loopholes. But for most people, making money from capital gains could result in lower taxes per dollar of income than someone doing more ordinary work. Or it could result in higher taxes, if you factor in inflation, net present value of money, and so on. BTW Warren Buffet's ""secretary"" is not a typist. She apparently makes at least $200,000 a year. http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2012/01/25/warren-buffetts-secretary-likely-makes-between-200000-and-500000year/#ab91f3718b8a. And side note: if Warren Buffet thinks he isn't paying enough in taxes, why doesn't he voluntarily pay more?
"As an investment opportunity: NO. As a friendly assist with money you don't mind ever getting back, legal depending on amount. A few years back I was in the housing market myself and researching interest rates and mortgages.  For one property I was very interested in, I would need about $4K extra in liquid cash to complete the down-payment.  A pair of options I saw were a ""combo loan"" 15yr 4% interest for the house, 1yr 8% interest for the $4K.  Alternately, the ""bank of mom and dad"" could offer the 4K loan for a much lower rate. The giftable limit where reporting is not required was $12,000 at the time I did the review.  IRS requires personal loans to be counted as having interest at the commercial rate.  Thus an interest free loan of $10K with commercial interest rate of 1% (for easy math) would be counted as a gift of $10,100 for that calendar year. Disclaimer: Ultimately, I did not use this approach and did not have it subjected to a legal review."
"At its heart, I think the best spirit of ""donation"" is helping others less fortunate than yourself. But as long as the US remains solvent, the chief benefit of paying down the national debt is - like paying off a credit card - lowering the future interest payments the U.S. taxpayer has to make. Since the wealthy pay a disproportionately large portion of taxes (per capita), your hard earned money would be disproportionately benefitting the wealthy. So I'd recommend you do one or both of the following: instead target your donations to a charity whose average beneficiary is less fortunate than yourself take political action with an aim towards balancing the federal budget (since the US national debt is principally financed in the form of 30 year treasuries, the U.S. will be completely out of debt if it can maintain a balanced budget for 30 years recanted, see below)"
As mbhunter said, extra payments of principal don't affect your taxes (except to the extent that you'll pay less interest, because the amount you owe interest on - the total balance/principal - is smaller).  If you want to reduce your taxes, you might pay into an IRA instead.
Were capital gains taxes not lower, companies would have an incentive to minimize the portion of the value they create that materializes as capital gains. They would do this by using more debt financing (since interest is deductible) than equity financing. This would have a destabilizing effect on the economy. Low capital gains taxes help encourage investment over spending. This is believed to improve economic growth. Given these factors, it is generally believed that the current capital gains tax rate is very close to the optimal rate. That is, a higher tax rate would not result in greater tax revenue. Bluntly, a higher income tax rate on earned income does not really discourage people from working harder and earning more money. But a higher rate on capital gains does discourage investment. Essentially, it's because investment is more discretionary.
There is no way you can directly defer that capital gains tax. If you sell a property that is not your principal residence, it will be taxed in the year in which it was sold. It doesn't matter what you do with the proceeds - that tax will get paid. Now, if you had adequate RRSP contribution room you could certainly put some money there, and would get a deduction on your tax return that would offset this capital gains tax. For example, if you sold a property for $300K that was originally purchased for $200K, then you would incur capital gains tax of $50K (assuming you were not claiming CCA deductions). If you took $50K of your proceeds and put it in an RRSP, it would offset the tax you pay now, and essentially defer the tax on that $50K of income until you withdraw - hopefully at a lower marginal tax rate. A spousal RRSP would work the same, except it would be taxed at your spouse's marginal tax rate when withdrawn. Either way, you need to have sufficient contribution room in the RRSP for this to work. Check your Notice of Assessment to see how much room you have available.
For larger items such as cars this is certainly possible; I've donated a car before (in Canada) and got a tax receipt that was probably worth more than I would have got from a dealer for the car. However with donations of this kind there are two obstacles: Two other options for you to consider. Most medium towns have used book shops which you can sell them to. If the used book shops don't want them then your books really aren't worth enough to be worrying about, in which case see option two: give the books to a charity or thrift shop and don't worry about the receipt. Sometimes a nice feeling is the best return you will get.
No it's not, not until a disposition.  Keep track of the CAD value on the day you receive the inheritance and get an average cost.  Then every time you go to the US and spend some money, record the CAD value on the day you spend it.  The difference is your profit or loss.  There is no capital gain as long as you don't spend it. Now this may seem ridiculous, especially since none of this is reported to the CRA.  They realize this and say the first $200 profit or loss is not taxable.
(a) you give away your money - gift tax The person who receives the gift doesn't owe any tax.  If you give it out in small amounts, there will be no gift tax. It could have tax and Estate issues for you depending on the size of the gift, the timing, and how much you give away in total.  Of course if you give it away to a charity you could deduct the gift. (b) you loan someone some money - tax free?? It there is a loan, and and you collect interest; you will have to declare that interest as income. The IRS will expect that you charge a reasonable rate, otherwise the interest could be considered a gift. Not sure what a reasonable rate is with savings account earning 0.1% per year. (c) you pay back the debt you owe - tax free ?? tax deductible ?? The borrower can't deduct the interest they pay, unless it is a mortgage on the main home, or a business loan. I will admit that there may be a few other narrow categories of loans that would make it deductible for the borrower. If the loan/gift is for the down payment on a house, the lender for the rest of the mortgage will want to make sure that the gift/loan nature is correctly documented. The need to fully understand the obligations of the homeowner. If it is a loan between family members the IRS may want to see the paperwork surrounding a loan, to make sure it isn't really a gift. They don't look kindly on loans that are never paid back and no interest collected.
Since you aren't contributing enough to count your parent as a dependent, there is no tax benefit to you for helping them. Gift tax is paid by the giver when total gifts to an individual exceed $14k/year and the lifetime exclusion of $5.49M has been exceeded. If your annual gifts exceed $14k (subject to change, as is the lifetime exclusion amount) then you have to file Form 709 with your return, but you will not pay gift tax unless you've both exhausted the lifetime exclusion and gift over $14k/year. If you pay medical bills directly, that amount does not count toward the $14k/year limit, so you could likely assist in excess of $14k/year and still avoid having to file the extra form. Most assistance programs are income-based, and gifts do not count toward income, but you'll want to check on the specific requirements for programs they are enrolled in.
You don't get on the soft-hearted sucker lists, because you tell the DAF not to disclose your address, phone or email. You don't need the charity's acknowledgement letter for your taxes, since your donation was actually to the DAF. It shuts down scams and non-charities, since the DAF confirms their nonprofit status and sends the check to their official address only. (This also bypasses those evil for-profit ""fundraising companies"".) It's a lot simpler than they want you to know. So-called ""financial advisors"" are actually salesmen working on commission. They urge you to invest, because that's what they sell. They sell financial products you can't understand because they are intentionally unduly complex, specifically to confuse you. They are trying to psych you into believing all investments are too complex to understand, so you'll give up and ""just trust them"". Simple investments exist. They actually perform better since they aren't burdened down with overhead and internal complexity. Follow this rule: If you don't understand a financial product, don't buy it. But seriously, do commit and take the time to learn investment. You are the best friend your money will have - or its worst enemy. The only way to protect your money from inflation or financial salesmen is to understand investment yourself. You can have a successful understanding of how to invest from 1 or 2 books. (Certainly not everything; those ingenious salesmen keep making the financial world more complicated, but you don't need any of that junk.) For instance how do you allocate domestic stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, etc. in an IRA if you're under 40? Well... how do smaller universities invest their endowments? They all want the same thing you do. If you look into it, you'll find they all invest about the same. And that's quite similar to the asset mix Suze Orman recommends for young people's IRAs. See? Not that complicated. Then take the time to learn why. It isn't stupid easy, but it is learnable.