Investment and Finance

The Kiddie Tax refers to the tax parents pay for their dependent children under the age of 19, when the child is taxed at their parents' tax bracket.
The current tax law imposes the "Kiddie Tax" on a dependent child under 19 by the last day of the tax year whose investment income(interest, dividends and capital gains) exceeds $2,000.
The tax is computed using the parents' income tax bracket on the amount of income over the $2,000 threshold.
For the current year the investment income of children under age 14 will get more of a tax break. The first $1,000 of investment income will be tax free and the next $1,000 will be taxed at the child's tax rate. Amounts in excess of $2,000 will be taxed at the parent's rate.

You have the right to file jointly in the year your spouse died. Include your spouse's income earned only through the date of his or her death. Income earned after his or her death may have to be included on the decedent's estate income tax return which is filed on form 1041. To determine if it is necessary to file this tax return or an Estate 706 return, contact a local CPA.

This refers to any income received on behalf of the deceased after his or her death, which is usually still attributable to his or her Social Security number.

You must make your contribution by the filing due date of the return (usually April 15), or the date you file the return, whichever is earlier. An extension to file your return does not extend your time to contribute to your IRA.

Contributions to IRAs must be made by cash. Checks and wired funds are considered to be cash.
You may be eligible to borrow the money from the brokerage house against your stock. This is called margin.
In this way you do not have to sell the stock and you can still fund your IRA.

There are basically three levels of financial statement services a CPA can provide. They are a Compilation, a Review and an Audit(sometimes referred to as an examination). The least expensive service is the Compilation and is generally accepted by banks for small personal loans, mortgages and small business loans, where an individual is required to guarantee the loan personally.

A Short Sale, or selling short, refers to when a person sells a stock before he or she owns it.
The person wants the stock price to go down, so it can be bought back at a cheaper price.
When you sell short you must borrow money to cover the sale. Usually, the seller's brokerage firm arranges to borrow stock to make delivery to the buyer until the seller "closes" the position by purchasing stock and turning it over to the brokerage firm.

The limit on employee elective deferrals is $18,000 for 2016. The catch up contribution limit for employees 50 and over remains unchanged at $6,000.
Generally, all elective deferrals made to all plans in which you participate are aggregated to determine if you have exceeded these limits.

A long-term capital gain is any gain that you receive from the sale of stocks or other investment property which is held for more than one year. If you hold something for 365 days that is still considered short term. It has to be more than one year.