The Charitable IRA Rollover is back for 2012 and 2013!

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) enacted January 2, 2013, extended the IRA charitable rollover rules which were originally put in place in 2006, and expired at the end of 2011. This provision allows individuals who are 70 ½ or older to transfer (or "rollover") up to $100,000 per year from their IRAs to most charities if the transfer is a "qualified charitable distribution" and certain rules are followed. Not only can taxpayers use the charitable rollover for 2013 distributions, but distributions from IRAs made after November 20, 2012 and before January 31, 2013 may be treated as a charitable IRA rollover for 2012, if that distribution is made in cash to charity before January 31, 2013. Thus, you could give up to $200,000 to charity from your IRA in 2013 (with $100,000 treated as given in 2012) if you act quickly. Contact us or your IRA plan administrator to learn more.

New Tax Bill Passed!

The American Taxpayer Relief Act was passed in the first days of 2013 to avoid raising taxes on all taxpayers. The Act: (1) extends the 2012 income tax rates for persons earning less than $400,000, or $450,000 for joint filers; (2) for these same filers, the capital gains and dividends rate will increase from 15% to 20%, but stay at 15% for other taxpayers; (3) estate, gift and GST exemptions stay at $5 million (indexed for inflation) but the top rate is increased from 35% to 40%; (4) makes "permanent" the portability of a deceased spouse’s unused exemption to the surviving spouse; and (5) makes "permanent" the alternative minimum tax relief and indexes it for inflation.