Both parties are pledged to effectively kill the capital-gains tax on home sales, a move that could richly reward families for whom the current $125,000 exclusion for those over 55 doesn’t apply: a $75,000 gain on a home can cost a middle-level taxpayer $21,000 in federal taxes. That might be enough to make it worth keeping the house until Congress acts.
Student workers don’t have the same wait-and-see luxury. The exclusion for employer-provided tuition goes off the books on May 31, so you should have your boss pay for summer school early.
And be sure to take advantage of 1997’s new breaks if you can. They include expanded IRAs for housewives, tax credits for adoptions, penalty-free IRA withdrawals for health-insurance purchases by the unemployed, and the so-called ““Amway write-off’’: home-office deductions for storing stuff that you sell on the road.
