Social Security Benefits

WASHINGTON - Republicans won easy House approval yesterday for a plan to cut taxes on Social Security benefits, providing relief to retirees with annual incomes above $34,000. The 265-159 vote did not reflect enough support to overcome a threatened presidential veto, but 52 Democrats joined with the nearly unanimous Republicans to back the latest addition to the GOP election-year tax cut package, thereby boosting its prospects of becoming law. "We're saying these are good, commonsense tax cuts for the American people, they ought to be signed, there's no excuse," House Speaker Dennis Hastert told a GOP rally as lawmakers prepared to leave town for their five-week summer recess.

The CEO of Chick-fil-A did more than express a view denigrating gay relationships ("Fast food activism," Aug. 1). The company spends millions to attack the very lives and security of people in same-sex relationships. As a result of anti-gay legislation like the Defense of Marriage Act, insurance companies do not offer private annuity contracts to same-sex couples who want to provide for their retirement. Social Security benefits do not extend to survivor relationships in same-sex unions.

Like hungry trout that find a fly can be a hook, House Republican leaders are snapping eagerly at Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's reiteration of an old gripe: Government statistics consistently exaggerate inflation rates, thus increasing entitlement payments and tax exemptions based on COLAs, or cost of living adjustments.For politicians who have vowed there will be no cuts in Social Security benefits or boosts in taxes, Speaker Newt Gingrich and House majority leader Dick Armey may regret their quick embrace of Mr. Greenspan's complaint.

Members of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants are answering readers' tax questions through April 15.Q: I sold some real estate but hold the mortgage on it. Do I report the whole capital gain in the year in which I sold it, or can I report the gain spread out over the life of the mortgage?A: Assuming that you are not a "dealer" in real estate, the capital gain would normally be spread over the life of the mortgage. This is considered the installment sale method. As you collect the mortgage principal each year, you would report the proportionate amount of the capital gain in the same year; keep in mind that you could elect out of the installment sale method and report the entire gain in the year of the sale.

STUDENTS at Yale University have devised an interesting way to relieve stress during that most dreaded time of college life, final exams. Dressed in little more than their sneakers, a few undergraduate males ran through the Yale library last month shouting "Merry Christmas!" and pelting students buried deep in thought with candy.Streaking on college campuses is really nothing unusual. The University of Virginia and Princeton (home of the infamous Nude Olympics) have long traditions of such naked jaunts.

WASHINGTON -- In an election-year bow to older Americans, Democratic and Republican leaders in the House have decided to act quickly today on legislation that would double the amount Social Security recipients between the ages of 65 and 69 may earn without losing benefits.The politically popular bill would increase the Social Security earnings test from the present $10,200 a year to $20,000 in 1997, allowing beneficiaries to receive up to that amount in wages or salary without penalty.It also would provide increased benefits to widows or widowers who are now over 80 but were under the normal retirement age of 65 when their spouses died.

You can't stop thinking about taxes when you stop working. "Definitely look at where all of your income is coming from and the taxation on all of that," said Paula Dorion-Gray, president of Dorion-Gray Retirement Planning Inc. in suburban Chicago. "Find out what your tax implications are going to be. A lot of people are surprised at how much in taxes they end up owing." There are other things to keep in mind when you retire, such as how too much income can reduce your Social Security benefit and increase your tax burden and the best way to move your 401(k)

WASHINGTON - Early last year, when President Clinton proposed using $250 billion of the budget surplus to create millions of individual retirement accounts, Vice President Al Gore balked, fearing the plan would cost too much and do too little for poorer workers struggling to save their money. On Tuesday, with great fanfare, Gore will unveil a new Family Savings Account proposal that will look remarkably like the Clinton plan he once viewed skeptically. The conversion was fueled by politics, swelling surplus projections, and a change of heart by some of his key economic advisers.

DETROIT -- Beginning this spring, a prepaid debit card for Social Security benefits will be introduced in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Later in 2008, the prepaid card - which is designed to help the Treasury Department cut down on the costs of mailing paper checks - would be rolled out nationwide. "The real value to the cardholder is access to things you can't get with cash," said Nora Arpin, director of government electronic solutions in Detroit for card administrator Comerica Bank, one of about a dozen financial institutions to compete for the business to issue the cards.