tax rates

If tax rates rise -- and experts say they will -- a way to grow your money tax-free starts looking mighty good. Meet the Roth IRA.

Saving for retirement isn't just a smart move for the long run. It can also cut your current taxes. But what if reducing your taxes now is the wrong strategy? For many workers, a smarter option is a retirement plan that eliminates your tax bill down the road: a Roth 401(k).

Amid all the chatter about Mitt Romney's high income and low taxes, many have wondered why more Americans don't take advantage of those attractive capital gains rates. The answer is that most people can't -- at least not on a level large enough to make a difference in their finances.

A lot of tax talk focuses on tax brackets. But in order to get the full picture of what you hand over to Uncle Sam, you need to consider not your bracket, but your effective tax rate -- and those are two very different numbers.

Mitt Romney paid a lower tax rate on his $21.6 million income in 2010 than the average U.S. family. It's no secret how: He made his money from investments, not wages. But even people who favor low capital gains taxes might not approve if they understood more about a neat little income category he benefited from called "carried interest."

With tax season 2010 already in full swing, it's easy to overlook some important tax changes for 2011. Here's some of what you can look forward to with respect to personal income taxes during the year: Payroll Tax Holiday. As we reported earlier, there's a one-year payroll tax holiday in...

Lawmakers in Illinois moved quickly yesterday, Jan. 12, to pass a new bill that increases the state's personal income tax rate by a whopping 66%. This appears to be the largest tax increase any state has approved in the wake of recent economic woes. Newly-inaugurated Illinois Governor Pat Quinn...

When I was in junior high school, I met a boy who changed my life. His name was Adam. No, it's not what you're thinking. You see, I grew up in the rural south. Before I met Adam, I thought we were poor. My parents struggled to pay the bills at our house, but we always had food on the table. We had...

A new Bloomberg poll shows 68% of investors say Obama's policies are "detrimental to the U.S. investment climate." That's despite soaring corporate earnings and a huge bounceback in stock prices during his administration. Somewhere, there's a disconnect.

Private equity investment managers in the U.S. typically pay a capital gains tax rate of 15%, while most people who earn ordinary income or bonuses have to pay the IRS up to 35%. A bill in Congress aims to close that loophole.