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Posted by Collector's Connection Appraisal tickets will be available the day of the event; early arrival is recommended. The event will take place at the college’s educational conference center, 1333 S. Prospect St., Nanticoke. For more information, visit www.drlori.com or call 1-888-431-1010. Plan now for next tax season You’ve just mailed off that accursed tax return. But instead of putting taxes out of your mind for another year, consider making some New Year’s resolutions while the errors, missed opportunities and “I should haves” of this year’s return are still fresh in your mind. Here’s advice from Tom Ochsenschlager, vice president of taxation for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants: Use a computer to keep track of expenses. “I do my checkbook on Quicken,” he says, although other computer programs work well, too. “I can sort all the info by whether each item is tax-deductible or not.” Forgo the refund. Your tax refund is money you lent the IRS for free. So pare your withholding to a minimum by jotting down the number on line 63 — your tax liability before withholding — of this year’s return. Add a few hundred dollars to be safe (most people must withhold 100 percent of their previous year’s tax to avoid penalties) and take it to your payroll department. Note: People with high incomes must withhold 110 percent of the previous year’s tax, so make sure you’re not withholding too little. Remember the standard deduction. For baby boomers who are downsizing their homes and moving to Florida, their two major deductions — mortgage payments and state tax — just got a lot smaller. Meanwhile, the standard deduction is indexed to inflation, so it keeps getting bigger. Even if you’re used to itemizing, make an estimate of your biggest deductions at the beginning of tax season. If the total is significantly less than $10,000 (for married couples filing jointly) take the standard deduction and save yourself a heap of work. Get help early. If you intend to hire a professional to do next year’s taxes, don’t leave it until the last minute. Start a relationship early in the year with someone you trust, says Ochsenschlager. He or she will likely give you tips you can use immediately, and you will have much more time to put a plan into action. Right now, with the deadline just passed, professionals are more relaxed and taxes are still on everyone’s mind. But wait a week before calling; evidently accountants go to the beach too. Choose insurance carefully The life insurance trade may seem the realm of stodgy numbers crunchers coldly estimating the chances of your demise and pricing their policies accordingly. In fact, it’s a commission-driven, reel-in-the-customer business that’s not nearly as static as it seems. For that reason, people looking to buy a policy should heed some of the old advice — but by no means all of it. Your basic choice is whether to buy term or cash value. Term is plain vanilla; it pays off only when you die. Whole life gives you more but charges you more. It basically offers term life plus a savings account; so you get a payoff after you’ve paid the policy premiums for a certain number of years. Term is still a better value for most people, says Glenn Daily, a fee-only life insurance adviser in New York. But make sure your term policy is convertible to a cash value policy. That way, if you should be in ill health as your term policy nears its end, you can convert and guarantee yourself another period of fixed, albeit higher, premiums. If instead you try to renew your term policy, your insurer is likely to catch on and charge you many times more than what you were paying. If you do decide on a cash-value policy, the popular choices are traditional whole and no-lapse universal life, which enables you to pay some of your premiums out of the savings account. Variable life has gone out of vogue due to changes in tax rates. Insurers such as Northwestern Mutual allow you to negotiate your agent’s sales commission; so ask him or her to combine base coverage, for which the agent gets a full commission, with lower-commission riders for a tailored policy that costs less. Don’t take firing lying down You’ve got an inkling you’re going to be fired. Maybe the boss has had it in for you since he or she took over. Or you’re a victim of another giant corporate downsizing. Or you’re the loser in a power struggle. Whatever your age, income or place in the company, consider talking to an employment lawyer. Not to suggest you’ll have a legal claim against your soon-to-be former employer. Far from it, says Robert B. Fitzpatrick, a Washington attorney specializing in employment law for nearly 40 years. He says that legitimate claims are mostly limited to obvious or egregious discrimination, harassment and the like, but companies that have been sued before are wary of incurring the expense again. A brief consultation with an attorney can put you on the right footing to negotiate a graceful, and prosperous, exit because your employer knows you’ve got legal backup. Much of what Fitzpatrick does for employee clients — he also represents employers — is limited to looking over a severance package before they sign. Chief executives and other bigwigs usually know how to bargain on their own but still come to him for advice. He rarely sees workers under 40 years old. “As long as you’re properly counseled by someone like me, you’re going to get to a deal a heck of a lot quicker,” he says. If you’re not in the executive suite and just the victim of another mass layoff, your options will be more limited. Still, he says, “If you think you have issues or you’ve got a lot of tenure and you’re getting offered chump change, it makes sense to sit down with a lawyer who’s been around the block.”
on 4/24/2006, 7:25 pm
67.166.86.150
Antiques appraisals scheduled at LCCC CONSUMER TIPS
Dr. Lori, whose antiques column appears Saturdays in the Times Leader, will conduct appraisals on Saturday, May 6, at Luzerne County Community College beginning at 10 a.m. Appraisals will be offered at $10 per item, with proceeds benefiting the LCCC alumni association.
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