In This Issue:

Timely Year-End Tax Planning Can Reduce Taxes; Income Tax Cost Basis Planning; and Marriage and Taxes in 2013.

Excerpt from Timely Year-End Tax Planning Can Reduce Taxes -

Year-end tax planning could be especially productive this year because timely action could nail down tax breaks that won’t be around next year unless Congress acts to extend them, which at the present time, looks doubtful. These include, for individuals: the option to deduct state and local sales and use taxes instead of state and local income taxes; the above-the-line deduction for qualified higher education expenses; and tax-free distributions by those age 70 ½ or older from IRAs for charitable purposes. High-income-earners have other factors to keep in mind when mapping out year-end plans. For the first time, they have to take into account the 3.8% tax surtax on unearned income and the additional 0.9% Medicare (hospital insurance, or HI) tax that applies to individuals receiving wages with respect to employment in excess of $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly and $125,000 for married couples filing separately).