Andrea Coombes, a tax editor at Bankrate, translates complex personal finance topics into understandable language that helps people live their best financial lives. She’s a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and over the past 25 years has worked as a financial coach, personal finance writer and editor, and volunteer tax preparer.
Her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch and many newspapers nationwide. She's been interviewed on local and national TV and radio, including NPR's All Things Considered, CBS News, NASDAQ and Marketplace.
Andrea has moderated panels on how to invest for retirement, how to use 529 college savings plans and more, and she's an experienced personal-finance speaker who has presented to groups on a variety of topics such as how to budget, improve credit, manage debt, and build savings. She's also worked as a personal financial coach and certified consumer credit counselor, helping people reach their goals. For two tax seasons, she worked a volunteer tax preparer.
A lot of people are nervous about doing their taxes, and about managing their money in general. I'm here to say: It's not rocket science. There are small steps each of us can take to slowly start moving towards our long-term goals. We can do this, people.
— Andrea Coombes, CFP®
A consumption tax applies to the purchase of a good or service. Sales taxes are a type of consumption tax.
These 9 states have no income tax, but before you move there, keep in mind that taxes shouldn’t be your only consideration.
If you need help with a tax debt or dispute, creating an estate plan, starting a business, or another legal question related to taxes, a tax attorney might be able to help.
Your adjusted gross income, or AGI, is your gross income minus a handful of items. Here’s how it works and why it matters.
Tax fraud can come with hefty penalties and fines, even jail time. Tax evasion is a type of fraud. But tax avoidance is legal.
Al Capone may be the face of tax evasion and all that can go wrong if you purposefully don’t pay your taxes. But tax avoidance is legal, and even encouraged by financial experts.
Gross income is your total pay, before deductions or taxes are taken out. It plays a big role in some key personal finance calculations.
Value-added tax (VAT) is not unlike sales tax, but there are key differences. Many countries impose a VAT instead of sales tax.
