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Minimum IRA Distributions Reduced Again
Important Times to Seek Advice
Can
E-ZPASS become Big Brother?
Satellite TV Loses in High Court
Minimum IRA Distribution Rules Changed Again
The IRS has released final regulations that provide for reduced required minimum distributions from IRA accounts for taxpayers who have attained the age of 70 1/2. These rules have changed numerous times in the past few years. The tables in these final regulations provide for longer payout periods than previously, thereby reducing the amounts that need to be withdrawn each year. Although effective for 2003, the IRS has stated that taxpayers may use the new tables (the Uniform Lifetime Table) for computing the 2002 minimum distributions.
The minimum amount that must be withdrawn in a particular year is the total value of all IRA accounts (determined on December 31 of the prior year) divided by the number of years the IRA owner is expected to live (as taken from the Uniform Lifetime Table). If the owner's spouse is more than 10 years younger than the IRA owner, the Joint and Last Survivor table (not shown) may be used to proved a smaller minimum distribution.
Excerpt from Uniform Lifetime Table:
AGE LIFE EXPECTANCY
70 27.4
71 26.5
72 25.6
73 24.7 etc.
For a more complete table, contact this office or your tax professional.
Important Times to Seek Assistance
Waiting for your regular appointment to discuss current tax-related issues can create problems or cause you to miss out on beneficial options that need to be timely exercised before year-end. The following is a short list of some of these times:
- Receive a large employee bonus or award
- Become unemployed
- Change employment
- Take an unplanned withdrawal from an IRA or other pension plan
- Retire or are contemplating retirement
- Exercise an employee stock option
- Have significant stock gains or losses
- Get married, separated or divorced
- Sell or exchange a property or business
- Had your spouse pass away during the year
- Reach age 70 1/2 during the year
- Start a business or acquire a rental property
- Receive a substantial lawsuit settlement or award
- Get lucky at a casino, lottery, etc. and receive a W-2G
It is always better to contact your tax professional before or just after anything like the above happens so you are able to optimize your tax liability and explore tax options.
REMEMBER, always contact this office or your tax professional when you receive a notice from the government related to your tax return. You should never respond to a notice without checking first.
Comment
Commenting on the abysmal support that we often receive from software vendors:
"Only drug dealers and software companies call their customers 'users' ".
The Harrow Technology Report
Can
E-ZPASS Become Big Brother?
Electronic tags such as those used by E- ZPASS in New Jersey let the high-tech system register when you're passing through a toll and paying the fare. But the devices can also keep tabs on your vehicle's location at any time- anywhere authorities set up transponders that check who is coming and going.
San Francisco is setting up 150 transponders over 500 miles of highway to provide its Metropolitan Transportation Commission with a deluge of traffic information. The agency says the data will allow it to chart strategies to get commuters around faster. Privacy advocates, however, see the program as the latest manifestation of Big Brother. New Jersey authorities refuse to comment.
Satellite
TV Loses in High Court
Television station lineups haven't changed much for Americans who get their broadcasts by satellite, thanks to a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court refused to let satellite companies choose which local
stations to air. That means satellite companies must follow the same
"must-carry" rules imposed on cable systems. Cable TV, and now
satellite companies, must run all local stations if they choose to carry one.
They may opt not to use any.
From Wired News, available online at: http:// www.wired.com
By Daithí Ó hAnluain
A furry, robotic teddy bear that can alert doctors to a medical emergency is the latest in elderly care management to come out of Japan.
The robo-ted is the brainchild of Matsushita Electric -- best known in the United States for the Panasonic and Technics brand -- and it is being used in a new high-tech retirement home.
The home, called Sincere Kourien, is part of a business venture that uses digital technology to monitor residents.
"Sincere Kourien will enable Matsushita's advanced nursing-home concept to become a reality, bringing together and showcasing many of our advanced IT technologies for elder-care services,"
said Kuniichi Ozawa, president of Matsushita Nursing Home Company, which was set up to manage
and market nursing homes and the technologies developed for Kourien.
The robo-ted, placed in each of Sincere Kourien's 103 rooms, uses gadgetry like pressure sensors, voice recognition and recorded phrases and greetings to interact with residents.The furbot has a stored set of messages like "Good morning" and
"Remember to take your medicine." It can also provide news and messages. "The robot can understand resident's words. He can recognize about 300
words and 2,000 kinds of phrases," Akira Kadota, a Matsushita spokesman, said. "Pressure sensors are installed in the robot,
so he can move his neck or arms when touched by the resident." "Help, I've fallen down!" is presumably one of the phrases the robot
recognizes, though residents at Kourien are equipped with wireless panic buttons in case of emergency.
But the robo-ted can also alert staff if conversation breaks off suddenly, indicating perhaps that its owner has collapsed.
Interactions, by voice and touch, are recorded and can be analyzed remotely to detect changes in a resident's behavior.
The only thing the robot doesn't do is move around. Research by Matsushita found that senior citizens didn't want to chase their pet around the house.