From: owner-persfin-digest@lists.xmission.com (persfin-digest) To: persfin-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: persfin-digest V5 #97 Reply-To: persfin Sender: owner-persfin-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-persfin-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-No-Archive: yes persfin-digest Monday, April 19 1999 Volume 05 : Number 097 In this issue of the Personal Finance Digest: Re: How to enter non-charity tax-free gift in Form 1040? Re: Deductible Gifts to Individuals Will Probate Re: getting paid for surfing the Net? Re: "magic" debt reduction Stock & Bankrupcy Magic debt reduction Company Buyout Need info on Long-term care insurance The messages posted to the Persfin-Digest are opinions and are not intended to substitute for qualified professional advice. Subscribers should seek the services of qualified professionals for such advice. The publisher, Internet provider, and Digest contributors cannot be held responsible for any loss incurred as a result of the application of any of the information provided here. To ask questions or provide answers, send your email to "persfin-digest@lists.xmission.com". Also, you can "reply" to the persfin-digest and your email tool should fill in the same address. However, if you "reply", be sure to edit the subject field in your email to reflect your topic. Copyright (c) 1999, Jeff Salisbury POSTED SUBSCRIPTION FEE: $20/year. Payment is optional. You will not be billed. The Digest is available to all subscribers, whether or not they pay. I do not discriminate either in favor of paying subscribers or against nonpaying subscribers. If you feel that the information presented here is worth the fee, and you feel comfortable paying it, send cash, check, or money order (U.S. funds), payable to "Jeff Salisbury", to: Jeff Salisbury 65 North 1300 East Logan, Utah 84321 Payment will be acknowledged by e-mail if you include an e-mail address. Subscribe: e-mail majordomo@xmission.com, text: subscribe persfin-digest Unsubscribe: e-mail majordomo@xmission.com, text: unsubscribe persfin-digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 13:37:53 -0400 From: Rich Carreiro Subject: Re: How to enter non-charity tax-free gift in Form 1040? >(1) If one made tax-free gift ($<10,000) to individuals (not to charities), where should one put the (deductible?) amount in Form 1040? Nowhere. You don't get deductions for gifts made to individuals. You only get deductions for gifts made to IRS-approved public charities or private foundations. >(2) Does TurboTax/TaxCut support this kind of entry? I doubt it, since there's no grounds for the deductions. Rich Carreiro rlcarr@animato.pn.com P5-100/RedHat Linux 5.2 - - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 14:16:52 -0500 From: "Harold R. Justice" Subject: Re: Deductible Gifts to Individuals You cannot deduct a gift to an individual, no matter the amount. Gifts under $10,000 to an individual are not subject to the gift(or estate) tax. You do not have to report such gifts. So, therefore, tax software does not support a deductible since there is none. ********************************************************* Original post. Hi, Two brief questions: (1) If one made tax-free gift ($<10,000) to individuals (not to = charities), where should one put the (deductible?) amount in Form 1040? (2) Does TurboTax/TaxCut support this kind of entry? - - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 14:33:12 -0500 From: "Harold R. Justice" Subject: Will Probate My wife's father's will was probated last May and her brother, who is the executor, has not informed her if some stock that was left to her, has been put in her name. It has lost over $16,000 since then. Her father told her to sell it as soon as possible since it is in a long term decline with no prospects to recover anytime soon. Her brother will not tell the other children anything about their inheritence, just saying he is in charge and is doing what his father put him in charge of doing. The other children have retained a lawyer but so far the lawyer has not been able to find out anything. He says they will probably have to go to court. Has anyone had any experience with something like this? Do you think my wife could force her brother to pay the differnce in the stock out of his own resources, even if it meant going to court. - - ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 12:58:03 -0700 From: zeng@itsa.ucsf.edu Subject: Re: getting paid for surfing the Net? At 09:54 AM 4/11/99 -0600, you wrote: >Date: Wed, 07 Apr 1999 12:02:00 -0500 >From: "Degang J. Chen" >Subject: Re: getting paid for surfing the Net? > >They say they will pay you to surf the Web. >I signed up for it, but I am wondering if this is >just a soliciting scam. Anybody can comment on it? ..... Here is more info from the web site call AllAdvantage. I signed up= recently.=20 Have not received the software yet. Sign up to be a member. You get a member ID# immediately upon joining. Then you are eligible to download Viewbar=99. You will get a welcome email with an approximate date that you can download the Viewbar=99. The Viewbar=99 will= be made available on a first come, first served basis, so it pays to sign up early. The Viewbar=99 is a small bar (a little taller than the Windows 95/98 Taskbar at= the bottom of your screen). The Viewbar=99 comes up automatically at the bottom= of your Web browser when you go online, to any web site. While you are on the= Net and the Viewbar=99 is active, AllAdvantage.com will pay you $.50 per hour, You do not need to go to their web site or buy anything. Currently they have a 40 hour limit per month ($20). You can get the Viewbar=99 off your screen at any tim= e with just one click and return to normal surfing without getting pay for a particular period. To see a demonstration of the Viewbar=99 click http://alladvantage.co= m /demo.asp?refid=3Dava171&path To sign up http://alladvantage.com/go.as= p ?refid=3Dava171 Chaoyang Zeng - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 02:52:37 -0400 (EDT) From: "L. Chen" Subject: Re: "magic" debt reduction > ............. > The page featured a matrix that would tell you how long it would be until you > were debt-free by taking your total debt vs. your minimum pmts +10% of your > income. Mine came out to 9 yrs - I'm less than 1 yr into a 30 yr mortgage, > have no credit card bills, and will have my car loan and student loan paid > off early this year. It didn't take interest rates into account at all. Of > ............... I can't speak to the "9 years". But conceptually, the idea is to pay more than the minimum/required payment. How fast your loans can be paid off depends on how much you can afford to pay -- in addition to the min/required amount. Since their "formula" includes 10% of your income, if you have a higher income - -- relative to your loan payments, then it could be paid off fairly quickly. e.g. if your income is 500K/yr and your total loan is 200K; 10% is 50K/yr -- in addition to your min. payments. Chen - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 06:35:43 -0400 From: "Peter & Karen Diamond" Subject: Stock & Bankrupcy Scott, Just because the company is in Chapter 11 doesn't mean it is worthless. This is a tricky are because the IRS specifically wants you to write it off in the first year you believe it to be worthless. Sometimes, it may not be obvious right away that the stock is going to become worthless. A worthless stock is put on Schedule D with your basis and a sale price of 0 (zero). They are typically treated as being sold on 12/31 of the year of worthlessness. The loss is treated like any other capital loss. If you can eventually sell the stock after writing it off, you would treat that gain as if it had a basis of 0 (zero). The way I see it, this will not add to your total tax for the transaction. I had a stock go worthless in 1997 and the bankruptcy case is just ending. It depends on the situation, but individual shareholders are pretty far down on the list of creditors. So, unless you really believe the company is viable in the long term, the safest bet it to write it off as soon as possible, since you can always sell it and pay the proper tax later. Peter Diamond (I am not a tax professional and I don't know all the specifics of your situation.) - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 10:58:34 -0400 From: BOB FORD Subject: Magic debt reduction >Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 21:24:25 EDT >From: JBednarzyk@aol.com >Subject: "magic" debt reduction >Anyone have any clues as to how this could be or if it's possible? = >I'm comfortable with my situation, and am not willing to pay the >$40, but am just a bit curious. I'm sure it's some scam, but can't >come up with anything off the top of my head. >Thanks! Juli Bednarzyk Juli If it is not a scam, it is very close to it. You will be out of debt when you pay off all of your debts. No one can tell you when you will be out of debt unless they all know about your debts, the interest rate, and your repayment schedule. The best thing you can do is use the $40 you would pay for this report to pay off any debt you have. BOB FORD BOB_FORD@COMPUSERVE.COM = - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 08:48:11 -0700 (PDT) From: "Shirley A. Humphrey" Subject: Company Buyout I own 530 shares in a company (Pioneer Hybrid) that is being bought by another company (Dupont). Shareholders are being given the option of taking cash and stock (55 percent stock, 45 percent cash). Since I purchased the stock about 10 years ago for less than $1,000, I am interested in all stock. I spoke to the investor relations spokeperson by phone. He said I could request all stock. If I am successful in getting all stock, I am assuming that I will defer tax until I sell the Dupont. Does anyone know if this is correct? Shirley Humphrey sahumphrey@ucdavis.edu - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 99 14:46:44 MDT From: Storage Products Division -- DTN 522-2718 19-Apr-1999 1428 -0600 Subject: Need info on Long-term care insurance My employer recently began offering the opportunity to participate in a long-term care insurance plan. Long-term insurance would help to cover the cost of serivces I receive for in-home care, assisted living facility, adult day care center, or conventional nursing home. I know very little about long-term care and associated insurance. If you have any info, or pointers to web resources which I might be able to use to evaluate the cost vs. benefit tradeoffs of long-term insurance, I'd appreciate it. Randy Marks - - ------------------------------ End of persfin-digest V5 #97 **************************** - To unsubscribe to persfin-digest, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe persfin-digest" in the body of the message. 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