Andrew Osterland is a business writer, specializing in personal finance and taxes.
Andrew Osterland is a business writer, specializing in personal finance and taxes.
Struggling with tax debt? There are moves you can make to reduce the impact of unpaid taxes on your life, credit and financial well-being. Here are five tips to lessen that burden.
If you're having trouble filing your tax return by the deadline, get a six-month extension. IRS Form 4868 takes about five minutes to complete.
While the IRS has had recent success combating tax return fraud, the responsibility to protect personal information begins with taxpayers. How not to become a victim.
The bulk of the things you could do reduce your tax bill for last year expired on Dec. 31. But not all of them. There are still a number of steps taxpayers can take to help reduce the bite on April 15.
For most of the last 10 years, fixed-income investors have not had to worry about liquidity. But as volatility has surged, first in stocks and now in credit markets, liquidity is starting to dry up across segments of the corporate bond markets.
Keeping asset values high and preserving the wealth effect that has fueled consumer and corporate spending is crucial to the health of the economy.
Last year, investors in local currency emerging market debt benefited as the MSCI EM currency index rose 3.5 percent against the dollar. This year, it's reversed and with a risk-off mentality in global markets, local currency returns are negative.
The fall months are typically weak for muni bonds, and although this year has generally bucked seasonal trends, it looks that way again this year.
Both high-yield bonds and leveraged loans are priced to near perfection, with credit spreads still hovering at historic lows. They are a bet on the U.S. economy and that it will be another year or two before the cycle turns.
Other than emerging market bonds, U.S. investment-grade debt — once a safe haven for investors — has had the worst performance of any major sector of the fixed-income landscape so far this year.
Data also provided by 
