Minutes
Monthly Meeting,
President Bob Welge brought the
meeting to order at
Bob next announced the schedule of future chapter meetings. The next meeting will be on April 11th,
when Wade Slome will present his prescription for Beating
the Market – Investing in Volatile Times.
Following Wade, on May 9th Paul Rabbitt will
discuss A Hybrid Approach: ETF Hedging and Stocks. These meetings will be held as usual on
Saturdays at
Bob then introduced today’s speaker, Herb Farrington, Proprietor of Tax & Financial Services, and his presentation New Tax Strategies for Investors and Retirees. Herb has a Bachelors in Accounting from CSU Long Beach and is an Enrolled Agent and Certified Financial Planner, all qualifications that he put to impressive use during his informative, well-organized, and (dare I say it about taxes?) enjoyable presentation.
The key take-home message about taxes: they have changed a lot this year, and gotten noticeably more complex. Two examples: the Recovery Rebate Credit (remember last year’s Stimulus Rebate Check – nothing so straightforward this year!), and Home Buyers Credits (disjointed Federal and State rules make qualifying almost hopelessly tricky).
But there is one clear, uncomplicated fact: taxes will go up in 2011 or next year automatically, unless Congress passes new legislation. Capital gains taxes are scheduled to rise from 15% to 20%, taxes on dividends from 15% to 35%, while the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) exemption will drop 24%-32% and the estate tax exemption will be re-instituted at $1,000,000.
Here’s an example of how making a rational lifestyle decision can have expensive tax consequences and side effects in unrelated and unexpected areas. A widow waited for over two years to move from her long-time home – the wait caused her capital gains taxes to skyrocket, and then, to add insult to injury, two years later, her Medicare Part B payments tripled!
Herb devoted considerable time to explaining the tax characteristics of the various kinds of retirement and savings arrangements that are available: traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, 401Ks, and 529 College Savings Plans. All can save taxes, but Herb seemed to favor Roths, while noting the complications involved in actually getting them set up.
In closing, Herb noted that doing this year’s taxes is a bit like being a coroner: your patient is already dead, and it’s too late to do anything about it. But planning for next year is more like being a doctor: it’s not too late to plan a course of treatment to make the patient better.
In summary, Herb presented a valuable, fact-filled, and well-organized presentation. I’ll bet almost everyone who listened closely learned something that helped them save taxes. And thankfully, for those who missed a point or two, or even for those who felt completely overwhelmed, Herb offered to email his slides to those requesting them by email at hdf.tafs@verizon.net or by phone at 714-904-5825.
Following the conclusion of Herb’s talk, Bob adjourned the
meeting at
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Minutes Recorded by Ed Sharman