Tax Advice
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WalletPop experts answer your questions about healthcare and tax prep
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Question:
My retired parents, who live in Virginia, need my help in finding them a new health care plan. They require a lot of medication, and their current insurance only covers generic versions of their pills. My father needs one medicine to be the name brand. How can I help them while I live in New York? What if I switch plans and the new insurance company decides not to cover the name brand after all? Is there any protection for my parents?
-- Maria, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Answer from Josh King, general counsel for Avvo, a free online legal directory
There's nothing in the new healthcare law that limits or controls pricing or coverage for name-brand pharmaceuticals. However, if you find a plan that covers the medicine you need now, it's unlikely to change down the road. While you may not have a law protecting you, customer pressure and the fact that medicine usually loses pricing power as newer remedies become available will likely lead to coverage being retained. You should also explore whether the medicine is cheaper via a Canadian pharmacy.
My retired parents, who live in Virginia, need my help in finding them a new health care plan. They require a lot of medication, and their current insurance only covers generic versions of their pills. My father needs one medicine to be the name brand. How can I help them while I live in New York? What if I switch plans and the new insurance company decides not to cover the name brand after all? Is there any protection for my parents?
-- Maria, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Answer from Josh King, general counsel for Avvo, a free online legal directory
There's nothing in the new healthcare law that limits or controls pricing or coverage for name-brand pharmaceuticals. However, if you find a plan that covers the medicine you need now, it's unlikely to change down the road. While you may not have a law protecting you, customer pressure and the fact that medicine usually loses pricing power as newer remedies become available will likely lead to coverage being retained. You should also explore whether the medicine is cheaper via a Canadian pharmacy.
Taxpayers using free e-file system get refunds just as fast as loans
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Anyone with an adjusted gross income of $57,000 or less can use the FREE online tax preparation site maintained by the Internal Revenue Service. That's about 70 percent of all U.S. filers, according to the IRS.
The agency can process a return and issue a refund within 10 days, Commissioner Doug Shulman says. That's down from as long as 8 weeks in prior years.
"Refund Anticipation Loans are often targeted at lower-income taxpayers," Shulman said. "With e-file and direct deposit, these taxpayers now have other ways to quickly access their cash."
So next time tax season rolls around, use the IRS website to file and get some cold, hard cash delivered quickly to your bank account without paying high fees for a short-term loan.
WalletPop experts answer your questions on the cost of career changes and health care
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Question: I am weighing a career change into nursing and will need to apply for financial assistance, as I have been unemployed for the past year. Given what nurses make the first few years, how much of a debt load can I afford to take on? I do not have any outstanding debt and have very little in savings. Besides student loans, what other kind of financial assistance could a nursing student get?
--Thien, New York City
Answer from David Alexander, president of Soliant Health, a health care staffing agency: Financial issues are very important to weigh when deciding on a career change. Given that you don't have debt now, and a nurse makes about $50,000 in the first year, you want to be careful to take on just enough to get your degree. As with anything, it pays to check out a variety of schools to see what best suits your needs. Different schools have different tuition rates and many, especially in the medical field, get more than their fair share of scholarship money because health care institutions tend to be notable charitable recipients. Check in directly with the dean's office at each school to dig further into financial aid and scholarships.
5 things you can do now to get ready for huge tax hikes in 2011
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Even worse, state and local governments are struggling to make budgets balance. A whopping 45 states reported receiving less revenue in 2009 than in 2008, a trend that states can't sustain in 2010. Last year, at least 10 states considered major tax increases and others sought to increase or expand the tax base by hiking sales taxes or imposing excise taxes on such items as cigarettes and soda.
How can you avoid extra hits to your wallet in 2011? Here are five tips to consider:
WalletPop experts on co-signing deeds, prescriptions under health reform, and college savings
Lan N. Nguyen
May 19th 2010 @ 5:00PM EST
Filed Under: Home, Saving Money, Health, School, Tax - Advice
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Question:
My husband and I are being added onto a deed by the title company preparing a refinance closing for my parents. The lender requires us to be on the deed to prove we own this asset, in order to co-sign on the refinance mortgage documents. Will this transaction trigger a taxable event for either party?
--Beverly
--Beverly
Planning for the future: estate planning 101
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"Estate planning isn't just for the rich," says Frank Armstrong, founder of Investor Solutions, Inc. and co-author of "Save Your Retirement: What to Do If You Haven't Saved Enough or If Your Investments Were Devastated by the Market Meltdown." "Everyone should insure that the distribution of their assets is as efficient as possible. But, estate planning includes 'living wills,' power of attorney in case of disability, gifting during life, proper designations for insurance, IRA and qualified plan assets and many other contingencies."
Here are five things you should do that will stand the test of time:
WalletPop experts discuss bankruptcy, taxes and IRAs
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WalletPop experts respond to your burning questions about bankruptcy, inheritance and IRA conversions.
Question:
It will be five years in December that we filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy from a lawsuit. When will our credit rating be cleaned out, so we can fill out Visa card applications without explaining that we did file for bankruptcy?
-- Kevin
Personal finance questions answered by WalletPop experts
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Question: I am a first-time home buyer in this hectic market. I have heard that the first-time home buyers credit will be extended to houses closing until June 1, 2010. The original date for closure cutoff was April 30, 2010. Any truth to the June deadline extension?
--Charlie
Answer from Barbara Weltman of The J.K. Lasser Institute: The first-time home buyer credit was extended through April 30, 2010. For anyone who is in contract by this date, you have until June 30, 2010, to close (and take title to the home) so you can claim the credit.
Think of your tax refund as a free loan to government
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It's less of a shock to the system when the IRS is paying you, rather than the other way around, but ideally, you want to get as close to hitting the nail on the head as you can, so very little money changes hands come April 15. Why? Well, I think the downside of owing money to the IRS is pretty self explanatory.
But when it comes to refunds, a lot of people like getting that check in the mail every year. They count on it, and use it to wipe out debt, or buy a big purchase they've been putting off, or - I hope - boost their savings a bit. Financially speaking, though, getting a refund means you've given the IRS an interest-free loan. They've been sitting on your cash, when it could have been in your paycheck each month, keeping you out of debt in the first place, or in your savings or retirement account, earning a return on your investment.
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