My Family Matters: Loans

A family loan starts with a handshake. Family Matters makes it real: a loan at the IRS rate, every payment on the record, everyone clear on the terms. Your family's loans, gifts, and homes on one record, doing the tax math as it goes. THE LOAN EVERYONE REMEMBERS DIFFERENTLY You lent Maya enough to clear her credit cards. Open the loan and see exactly where it stands: what is still owed, the payment each month at the IRS rate, the next payment due, and the month it pays off. Every payment splits into principal and interest, so nobody has to work it out again. You set the loan up once on the web, and from then on it lives here. When a payment lands, record it and the balance draws down. When payments come from a connected bank account, they record themselves. The interest figures your tax preparer needs sit right on the loan, by year: the 1099-INT for you, the 1098 for the borrower. The signed loan agreement and every document stay with the loan. The promises that go with the loan, like an emergency fund kept full, are on the record too, and everyone can see whether they are being kept. A proposed change to the terms goes to the borrower to accept or decline. Maya opens the same loan you do and sees the same numbers. You send the money the way you always have. Family Matters keeps the record. EVERY GIFT AGAINST THE YEARLY LIMIT A check, a 529 contribution, a loan you forgave: each one counts against that person's yearly limit, and you see what is left to give before you write the next check. Tuition paid straight to the school is logged as exempt, so it never muddies the count. Log a gift as you make it. Transfers from your connected accounts that look like gifts show up for a quick yes or no, and nothing is recorded without your say. Go over the limit with anyone and you know before your accountant asks whether a Form 709 is needed this year, and how much of the lifetime exemption each of you has left. YOUR HOME KEEPS ITS OWN COST BASIS The house you live in, the second place, the one the whole family shares. Every improvement lands on the home's record: the new roof, the dock, the kitchen. So the home carries its own cost basis, what you paid plus everything you have put in, and the gain if you ever sell. It is the number your kids take on when you gift them the home. Find the roof in your bank and add it to the basis in one step. The home's bills and shared costs sit in one ledger, split the way your family splits them, so nobody has to ask who paid. MONEY SET ASIDE, AND THE KIDS' 529s An emergency fund for Ben. An inheritance Grandma holds for Noah until he is grown. The money stays in the family's own account and you both see the balance. Ben asks for help with a car repair, you say yes or no, and the answer is on the record. The kids' 529s where everyone who gives to them can see them: what is saved, who gave, and how a five-year front-loaded gift counts. Chip in from the plan, and it shows where the giver stands against the yearly limit before you confirm. ONE FAMILY, ONE RECORD Everyone in the family you invite comes in free: your kids, your spouse, your parents. Each of them sees what they should see. Maya sees her loan. Grandma sees Noah's fund. Bring in your CPA or attorney when you want them, and by January the year's interest and the gift tally are already there.