Mitt Romney is betting on a boring tax plan to keep him ahead of the pack in 2012

There was a time when tax policy actually had the starring role in the 2012 Republican Presidential race.

That was before Sharon Bialek dolled up for the hungry cameras, while her attention-grubbing attorney punned lamely about “stimulus packages”, and related the tale of citizen Cain slipping a hand up her skirt and pulling her head toward his crotch.

That was also before Rick Perry fumbled the presidential pigskin once again as he let the Department of Energy slip from his addled brain with an epically infantile “Oops”.

All anyone could talk about then were Cain’s 9-9-9… Read more…

Whether you’re sitting on an employee options grant or day-trading puts and calls, taxes play an important part in determining how much money you keep from every trade. Here are some quick tips to get you started:

When you are granted employee stock options, you won’t pay taxes on the initial grant. This is one of the reasons options have been so popular. They’re a great way to show someone that their work is recognized, but to give them an incentive to stick around for the long term. Since they’re valuable from day one, they provide a nice incentive, but unlike other forms of incentive, they don’t burden anyone with a cash outlay.

When you do cash in your options,… Read more…

This depends on how much you made, and how long you held it.

To calculate the first, find out how much you paid for the stock, and how much you sold it for (be sure to account for stock splits, but not for dividends, warrants, and spinoffs). For example, if you bought 100 shares at $25 and sold them at $30, your capital gain is 100 * (30 – 25), or $500.

Next, you’ll need to calculate your holding period. Your holding period is basically how long you’ve owned the stock, but the calculation is a little strange. First, you’ll start on the day after; you made the trade: if you bought on September 15, your holding period begins on… Read more…