Each of the three registered agents of CIM in Pennsylvania are Certified Public Accountants and Certified Financial Planners®, and have considerable experience with income and estate taxes.

And make no mistake, there is a direct link between tax planning and successful personal financial plans.

Here’s some examples:

1. Congress encourages us to save money for retirement by bestowing tax advantages onto certain retirement saving instruments.

But how to optimize the tax advantage when there are so many different options?
And how do you know if you aren’t going overboard , and giving taxes too much attention?
Or are you wasting a tax advantage by using inappropriate investment vehicles in IRA’s and other tax deferred accounts?
Under certain circumstances a lower-taxed capital gain can be more advantageous than higher taxed ordinary income from a tax deferred account.

2. Congress influences some of life choices through its tax policy.

Insurance products are sometimes tax favored, but, unfortunately are also heavily over-sold.
Section 529 education plans, with qualified tax free distributions, can be, but are not always the education savings plan of choice.
Federal estate taxes can be very expensive, and you do not have to be super wealthy for them to impact on your family.
A family trust can sometimes be the solution to money management issues. But the income tax rates on income left in trusts are prohibitively high.