Blog

Most Americans have only a cursory understanding of the personal income tax portion of the U.S. Tax Code, and are content to pass along their required annual Tax Return preparation to a paid professional, or even to a computer program. While we encourage the use of tax professionals (Note: we are not tax preparers), the […]

Americans everywhere are being bombarded with welcome news regarding falling inflation. We are of course pleased with the news, but at the same time, we are appalled at the misreporting of the true meaning of that news. As usual, much of the erroneous slant on the news is intentional, attempting to convince Americans that prices […]

Our Government has long been inconsistent in applying Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) for taxpayers. We have been disappointed when inflation adjustments are applied unequally among aspects of our individual financial lives. In practice, every year brings more inconsistencies, and American Taxpayers seem always to wind up on the losing side of the battle to […]

Support for American generosity is embedded in the U.S. Tax Code. Why, then, does the IRS make gifting rules so complex and difficult to follow? The rhetorical nature of that question does nothing to lessen the value of carefully following ever-changing terms and conditions for improving a taxpayer’s cash flow through gift-giving. In general, tax […]

Americans are truly the most generous people on the planet. During COVID-19, we slid to 19th place in world rankings but quickly recovered to a tie for first place with Myanmar (we learned it as Burma). Even American millennials have begun to establish patterns of generosity. For the record, we applaud their efforts. For many […]

According to my calendar (which I thoroughly believe must be lying to me, because we can’t really be this close), there are only a couple of months left until Christmas, 2023. By then, most Americans are pretty much done making financial decisions for the year, not really thinking about business until sometime in January 2024. […]

Earlier this year, we posted a Blog expressing our disgust at the way Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) are applied to certain government functions that affect most Americans. The Department of Labor is charged with the annual task of determining the net increase in overall prices we all pay. Their results are published as the Consumer Price […]

The U.S. Tax Code is a behemoth, and little understood. It is enforced by a [service-oriented] Department of the Federal Government. The Internal Revenue Service, or more commonly IRS, has the ability to ruin lives, and the American people rightly fear and loathe the “Service.” It is little wonder to me, as I share most […]

Traditional IRA vs. Roth IRA – easy choice? Not so much. Add in Roth IRA Conversions (from Traditional IRAs), and year-end 2023 financial planning gets even more complicated. Yet, the long-term consequences of these conversions, positive or negative, are serious. Consequently, Van Wie Financial is already involved in our clients’ year-end planning. Naturally, it gets […]