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If a substantial portion of your wealth is tied up in a family or closely held business, you may be concerned that your estate will lack sufficient liquid assets to pay federal estate taxes. If that’s the case, your heirs may be forced to borrow funds or, in a worst-case scenario, sell the business in order to pay the tax.

In the quest to reduce your tax bill, year end planning can only go so far. Tax-saving strategies take time to implement, so review your options now. Here are three strategies that can be more effective if you begin executing them midyear: 1. Consider your bracket The top income tax rate is 39.6% for taxpayers with taxable income over $418,400 (singles), $444,550 (heads of households) and $470,700 (married filing jointly; half that amount for married filing separately). If you expect this year’s income to be near the threshold , consider strategies for reducing your taxable income and staying out of the top bracket.

When a spouse passes away, the surviving spouse is most often left in a state of grief and overwhelming anguish. With so many different preparations and arrangements to think about, adding the stress that comes along with estate inheritance and management is not helpful to the spouse.

The 2014 tax season is finally over! Congratulations for making it through! Now is the time to put up your feet, relax, catch up on your favorite shows, and spend time with your family. Sure, your office desk may be buried in two inches of IRS forms, receipts, pay stubs, and W-2s, but you’ll just push that to the back of your mind until next April, right?

Not necessarily.

Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” And while the 2014 tax season is behind us, you can be sure that next year’s will come around again before you know it. The best time to start preparing is right now.

Recently, two significant propositions passed that are especially meaningful for small business owners in California. New California Incentives AB93 and SB90 are set to alter and reshape the way that roughly $750 million is distributed annually towards building enterprises.

You’ve found a great deal on flights, a perfect hotel room minutes away from the beach, and an affordable rental car that will get you and your family of four around town. However, what you may not have taken into account are potential taxes, which could turn your carefully budgeted summer getaway into a lot more than you bargained for.

As small employers know, the FUTA tax is collected to fund the state agencies which provide unemployment compensation to workers who lose their jobs. Generally, employers pay a FUTA tax rate of 6 percent on the first $7,000 of covered wages paid to each employee during the year.

Selling inevitably leads to taxes, but investors can minimize the amount of money they pay to the government with some careful planning. Below are five things you need to know in order to trim your investment taxes:

1. Capital-gain rates are up for the wealthy.

Tax controversy lawyers are constantly thrown a myriad of issues that reflect the government’s current agenda. The latest segment that has grasped tax lawyers’ attention is the application of the passive activity loss rules. In addition to several audits in this area, the Tax Court has been issuing opinions about passive activity loss rules on a regular basis.