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Many Polls Say Orban Will Lose. But He Has an Edge Even Before Voting Begins. The New York TimesHungary decides in a key election that could unseat populist Prime Minister Orbán The HillHungarians vote in landmark election closely watched by EU, Russia, US ReutersAfter 16 years in power, Putin's closest friend in Europ
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Inflation Soared to 3.3% in March, Driven by Higher Gasoline Costs WSJOpinion | Prices Are High. Here's One Reason Not to Panic. The New York TimesOpinion | The skunk at the garden party The Washington PostInflation surges to highest level in nearly 2 years as energy costs spike NPR‘This is very real': Surging gas prices drive inflation to highest level in 2 years Politico
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Producer price index for the world's dominant manufacturer turns positive year-on-year for the first time since 2022
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Plenty of retirees like to give back to their communities through charitable donations, but questions often arise over the best way to do that.
What approach is efficient, provides the tax benefits you're after, and also is advantageous for the charity that's on the receiving end?
SEE MORE Ever Dream of Having a Building Named After Yourself?
One possibility is a qualified charitable distribution (QCD), a tax-savvy way to reduce your taxable income and maximize your donations whether you itemize deductions on your tax return or not. An added bonus is that the benefits can be large for both the donor and the charity.
Here's How QCDs Work
A QCD is a distribution from an IRA that is paid directly from that retirement account to a qualified charity. QCDs lower your adjusted gross income (AGI) and therefore lower your tax bill. They can also offset required minimum distributions (RMDs), those withdrawals you must take from your IRA each year once you reach age 72. An RMD adds to your income, raising the amount of taxes you pay, but a QCD is excluded from your income. So, for example, if you withdrew $50,000 from your IRA as an RMD, you would pay taxes on that money. But if that same $50,000 was used as a QCD instead, you avoid the taxes while helping a charity at the same time.
SEE MORE Every Dollar Counts: How to Evaluate a Nonprofit
Taxpayers can benefit from QCDs even when they take the standard deduction and do not itemize their deductions. Meanwhile, even though a QCD doesn't count as an itemized deduction, tax
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Are you thinking of retiring soon? Perhaps earlier than you had planned years ago? A potential hurdle could be the incentives set up by the Social Security Administration - they calculate your benefits to reward you for staying in the workforce.
But if you are looking to take an early retirement, you're not alone.
SEE MORE What If I Retired Today?
In the first 15 months of the COVID pandemic (March 2020-May 2021), about 2.5 million Americans retired. That was about twice the number of people who retired in 2019. This means there were essentially 1.2 million fewer people in the workforce over the age of 55 than would otherwise be expected.
First, find out what Social Security benefits you can expect
For anyone born in 1943 or later, your full retirement age, as defined by the Social Security Administration, is between age 66 and 67, based on your birth year. If you're contemplating retiring before that, it's important to know that the Social Security program has been orchestrated to incentivize beneficiaries to delay claiming benefits. Specifically:
If you start taking benefits at age 62, your Retirement Benefit will shrink by 25% to 30%, depending on your birth year. That's because your lifetime annual benefits are decreased by approximately 8% for each year prior to your full retirement age you start to claim them.Conversely, your lifetime annual benefits increase by 8% for each year past your full retirement year if
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