LEWY BODY DAILY JOURNAL

This is the story of Pam and John; she in her early 50’s and John is 62. Pam is a college professor. John taught at a local community college until diagnosed with Parkinson’s in March 2008, then Lewy Body Dementia in April.

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Friday, December 12, 2008

financial forms

I'm filling out the preliminary college financial aid forms for our son, who will go to college next year. His grandfather gave him a very nice college fund so he isn't going to get any need-based aid but paying for his college isn't a stress on us. But I still have to fill out the form for him to be eligible for merit-based aid. The trouble is that 2008 is a transition year for us--John worked all of 2007, half of 2008, and will work none of 2009. For the next few years his retirement plus social security plus private disability insurance (which only pays until he is 65) won't be that different from what his salary would have been.

But where I am seriously stumped is that I don't know what of John's income is taxable and what is tax free:

  • Is social security retirement (or social security disability if he gets it) taxed?
  • Is his retirement income from his job as a state employee taxed?
  • Is his private disability insurance taxed?
  • The one I am pretty sure of is that his annuity income is taxed, as we bought that with untaxed money such as IRAs

I was thinking maybe I could get someone to help me with the form but after going through it once myself the problem is that I am going to have to go to several different people to get answers to different questions. I am grateful at least for a good online form that saves the information I entered and then prints out a list of questions I still need to answer.

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