Today TaxMama hears from Joel in New York with this question. “If I lease a car for business, say 80% business use, can I write off 80% of the down payment?” Dear Joel, People lease cars for business all the time. I wonder why no one has ever

Today TaxMama hears from Karen in Arizona with this sad question. “A parent distributes an annual gift of $13,000 to a child for 4 years depleting all assets. If the parent requires full time nursing care before the end of the 5th year and has only Soci

Today TaxMama hears from Linda in La Mesa, Calif – near the Mexican border. “If a dependent is a U.S. Citizen and a resident of Mexico, do they qualify for the child tax credit or the additional child tax credit?” Dear Linda, If the child f

Today TaxMama hears from Mike in Colorado who can’t find an answer. “IRS Publication 537 has a section describing how to calculate a gain, and your new basis, when you repossess real estate. But all the examples, and the instructions describe how to

Today TaxMama hears from Enrique in California, who just learned something new. “I read that one can file for tax bankruptcy. If so how does one go about it? I was not sure if was true or not, and I saw your web site along with the article I read. Any h

Today TaxMama hears from Carla in Indiana, who is concerned. “I have a client who took $105,000 from his 401(k) and rolled it over into a ROTH IRA because his investment advisor said that you only include the income you made that year. My research says

Today TaxMama hears from Mark in Pennsylvania, with a good question. “Is the Child Tax Credit of $1000 per child still in effect for 2010? I have 5 kids that qualify for the credit and I changed my W-4 to exempt several years ago since I continue to get

Today TaxMama hears from Susi in New Jersey, with a common problem. “I have joint brokerage accounts with different members of my family that I manage. The brokerages send the year-end 1099’s in the name of the ‘’primary’’ owner. How can I ap

Today TaxMama hears from Judy in Washington state, with this question. “Could you please tell me how long a 1995 net operating loss can be carried forward?” Dear Judy, Did you know that IRS has an entire publication about Net Operating Losses? Y