Getting into tax season....
1) I have a full-time job and also a schedule C business. I have a long-term care policy I buy through my employer. I do not itemize medical expenses. Is there any provision to deduct the long-term care premiums?2) I have a condo that I paid $176,000 for and lived in for a year. On 1/1/2009 I converted it to a rental. I set the value of the land at $11,000, leaving $165,000 for the building. I'd have expected the depreciation to be $6,000 - $165,000 divided by 27.5. Turbo Tax shows it as 27.5 year property, but gives me depreciation of $5,750. Any idea why?
3) When I lived in states with no income tax (Texas and Florida) I funded my retirement plans (where possible) on a Roth basis. Now that I am in a state with a high income tax, I fund them on a traditional (pre-tax) basis. I do have some hope of retiring to a low-tax state (I'm 52 years old). Does this seem in general like a more sensible plan, to fund pre-tax since I am also saving the state income tax as well as Federal?4) I have about $120,000 in a SEP IRA, $100,000 in a Rollover, and $300,000 in a Roth. My income is over the Roth contribution limit. I would love to take advantage of the "Roth Conversion Trick" where you make an after-tax contribution, then convert to a Roth tax-free. I might be able to take the $100K from the Rollover and roll it into either my self-employed 401(k) or my employer's plan. However, if I understand the rules correctly, I would have to clear out the SEP also. That is, say I contribute $5,000 to a nondeductbile IRA. If I then convert $5000, this would come 96% from the SEP (with a cost basis of zero) and 4% from the new IRA, so I'd have to pay tax on $4,800 of the conversion. Is there any clever way to get around this? (I created the SEP some years ago by terminating my Keogh - right now I wish I hadn't, but who could have foreseen the current set of rules?)
5) With regard to the condo, I get a property tax bill in November. I don't even know what time period it is for. I paid the 11/2008 tax bil in 1/2009, and the 11/2009 bill in 12/2009. I can deduct both in 2009, right? Does it matter if the 11/2008 bill was for 2008, when I used the condo as my primary residence, or if it was for 2009, when it was rental property? In theory I know that in the first case it would be on Schedule A and in the second case on Schedule E, but I don't have any kind of passive loss limit issue. The only issue might be that I didn't itemize for 2008, so if the 11/2008 bill was for 2008 AND I had to consider it as Schedule A, I would get no benefit. But I don't think that matters, does it - no matter what, if I paid it in 2009, it's a 2009 deduction.Thanks in advance.