How Choosing a Smaller Bank is a Wise Investment

By Shaun Dalton

If you are like me and tired with pushing buttons repetitively on your home phone to deal with the identical instructions generated from your bank whenever you call? Why not contact one of the smaller personal banks. They offer the human touch, just like banks used to do in the old days.

Remember the days when you could pick up a phone and speak to the same person as before? I called in at the Pensions Bank in Leicester early in December 2009 and met all the key staff, only about ten people, including their Chief Executive Officer. Small banks like this have identical protection under UK legislation as the impersonal high street banks that pay huge bonuses and bounce customers from one recorded instruction to another. So why endure repetitive telephone messages after a long wait listening to music? An efficient small bank can provide a more relaxed and faster personal service with real people?

You don't always need to be wealthy to get the sort of individual service offered by a private bank. For example, the Pensions Bank account through equity care, only requires a credit balance of 3,000 for free banking and this can be automatically topped up monthly from your deposit account.

Small personal banks may also specialise in niche customer needs. For instance the Pensions Bank makes life much easier when dealing with and opening accounts for elderly people, their relatives and Attorney's. In this context the anti money laundering and proof of I.D. documentation can be particularly frustrating and time consuming, with most large high street banks. However, the Pensions Bank has a system in place that can simply authorise confirmation of identification from your professional adviser. Plus they can deal efficiently with customer's financial advisers in handling trusts and pension scheme administration. Unlike the big banks, they do not get involved in pushing credit cards, life assurance, pensions and investments and work comfortably together with their customer's existing professional advisers.

Similar to many personal banks that have the high standards of client service values of days gone by, the Pensions Bank mixes old fashioned customer service with today's technology. They make available modern Internet facilities with competitive deposit and lending terms along with the standard personal banking services expected. In addition they provide company banking administration on low cost terms, such as P.A.Y.E. for large or small businesses.

Compact Banks like the Pensions Bank bring back real personal customer values into today's banking. You can enjoy the benefits of talking with real friendly staff rather than recorded instructions. It's such a great pity that such banks are not well known? - 32535

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Elderly or Disabled Tax Credit

By Sandor Lenner

A tax credit may be available if you are 65 years of age prior to December 31, 2009 or under 65 but retired and were permanently and totally disabled on the date you retired. Regrettably, this credit is not as significant as some of the other tax credits that are available to qualifying individuals. Notwithstanding the size of the credit, like any tax credit, it should not be overlooked since it could result in some unanticipated cash for you.

How the Elderly Credit Works The credit is equal to 15% of an applicable "initial" amount based on an individual's filing type i.e. $5,000 for a single individual, $7,500 for married taxpayers filing a joint return where both spouses are qualified. The initial credit is then reduced by certain nontaxable pensions and benefits such as pension ,disability benefits or annuities that are not included in adjusted gross income. The initial credit is then further reduced by one half of the excess of the individual 's adjusted gross income over certain predetermined levels, based on the individual 's filing status. The levels are single taxpayer is $7,500, married taxpayers is $10,000 and married taxpayers individually filing separately is $5, 000.The credit is calculated by multiplying the adjusted "initial" amount by 15%.

Nontaxable Pensions and Benefits Taxpayers should be careful when listing the nontaxable amounts they receive. These amounts are often verified by the IRS through information supplied by other governmental agencies. Some examples of nontaxable pensions and benefits are (a)nontaxable social security payments,(b)nontaxable railroad retirement pension payments treated as social security, (c) nontaxable pension or annuity payments or disability benefits that are paid under a law administered by the V.A. and (d) pension or annuity payments or disability benefits that are excluded from income under any provision of federal law other than the Internal Revenue Code.

Amount of Disability Credit For permanently and totally disabled taxpayers under the age of 65, the applicable initial amount may not exceed the amount of the disability income for the tax year. Special rules apply to determine the initial amounts when one spouse is under 65 and to determine and support the permanently and totally disability status being claimed.

What are the Credit Limitations ? In making the determination of the amount of the credit, one is entitled to, you must first consider two income limits. The first income limit is the amount of the your adjusted gross income(AGI). The second income limit to determine is the amount of non-taxable Social Security and other non-taxable pensions you may have received during 2009. The amount of credit you can claim cannot exceed the amount of your tax. Also, you cannot take this credit if your AGI is equal to and is greater than (a)$17,500 if single, or head of household or qualifying widow(er) with a dependent child, (b)$20,000 if you are married and filing jointly and one spouse is eligible for the credit,(c)$25,000 if you are married filing jointly and both spouses are eligible for the credit and (d)$12,500 if married filing separately or depending on your filing status, you are not permitted to use the credit if you received certain nontaxable benefits ranging from $3,750 to $7,500.

Claiming the Credit The credit is computed on Schedule R form 1040 or form 1040A. This credit is not available for individuals that file form 1040EZ. In the case you file a 1040EZ, just file the allowed forms, Form 1040A or 1040.

Tax laws are complex, change constantly and each situation is unique. This article is not intended to provide legal or accounting advice. The reader should perform his or her own due diligence and consult competent professionals in this area. Special rules exist to determine certain exclusions,amount of the credits and the proper filing status. Please refer to the Internal Revenue Service Publication 52 for more detailed information. - 32535

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