REQUISITOS ADICIONALES DE ACUERDO AL RÉGIMEN ADUANERO

Income funds are mutual funds whose investment objective is to produce current income rather than long-term growth, typically by investing in bonds or some- times a combination of bonds and preferred stock.

Investors, especially those who have retired or are about to retire, may prefer income funds to potentially more volatile growth funds.

The amount of income a fund may generate is related to the risk posed by the investments that the fund makes and the return they generate.

A fund that buys lower-grade bonds may provide substantially more income than a fund buying investment-grade bonds. But the same fund may also put your principal, or investment amount, at substantial risk.

Income in respect of a decedent

Any income your beneficiary receives after your death that would have gone to you if you were still alive is described as income in respect of a decedent.

One example is the income your beneficiary gets as a minimum required distribution from your 401(k) or IRA. In this case, your beneficiary pays tax on that income at his or her ordinary rate, as you would have.

Income statement

An income statement, also called a profit and loss statement, shows the revenues from business operations, expenses of operating the business, and the resulting net profit or loss of a company over a specific period of time.

In assessing the overall financial condition of a company, you’ll want to look at the income statement and the balance sheet together, as the income statement captures the company’s operating performance and the balance sheet shows its net worth.

Income stock

Stock that pays income in the form of regular dividends over an extended period is often described as income stock.

The advantage of owning income stock is that it can supplement your budget or provide new capital to invest. Unless you own the stock in a tax-deferred or tax-free account, you’ll owe income tax each year on the dividends you receive.

But dividends on qualifying stock, including most US stock and some international stock, are usually taxed at your lower long-term capital gains rate. Income stock is an important component of most equity income funds and growth and income funds.

Incorporation

When a business incorporates, it receives a state or federal charter to operate as a corporation. A corporation has a separate and distinct legal and tax identity from its owners.

In fact, in legal terms, a corporation is considered an individual—it can own property, earn income, pay taxes, incur liabilities, and be sued.

Incorporating can offer many advan- tages to a business, among them limiting the liability of the company’s owners. This means that shareholders are not personally responsible for the company’s debts. Another advantage is the ability to issue shares of stock and sell bonds, both ways to raise additional capital.

You know that a business is a corporation if it includes the word “Incorporated”—or the short form, “Inc.”—in its official name.

Indemnity insurance

An indemnity insurance policy pays up to a fixed amount when you make a claim, often on a per-day basis.

The premiums on health insurance indemnity plans may be lower than on other heathcare plans, but the fixed payments may cover only a portion of your medical bills.

Some people use indemnity plans as supplements to, rather than sub- stitutes for, more comprehensive health insurance. Others use low-cost indemnity plans for short-term coverage.

Indenture

An indenture is a written contract between a bond issuer and bond holder that is proof of the bond issuer’s indebt- edness and specifies the terms of the arrangement, including the maturity date, the interest rate, whether the bond is convertible to common stock, and, if so, the price or ratio of the conversion.

The indenture, which may be called a deed of trust, also includes whether the

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INCOME FUND

bond is callable—or can be redeemed by the issuer before it matures—what property, if any, is pledged as security, and any other terms.

Independent 401(k)

The independent 401(k)—also known as a solo 401(k), indy-k, or uni-k—is a variation of the 401(k) designed for people who are self-employed or operate a small business with a partner, spouse, or other immediate family members.

The annual contribution limit is the same as it is for other 401(k) plans, and catch-up contributions are allowed for participants 50 and older.

The plans are easier and less expensive to administer than traditional 401(k)s, and they have certain potential advantages over other retirement plans for small businesses as well, including high contribution limits, access to tax-free loans, and the ability to roll over savings from most other retirement plans.

Most business entities qualify to set up an independent 401(k), including partnerships, corporations, S-corporations, limited liability partner- ships (LLPs), limited liability companies (LLCs), and sole proprietorships.

Index

An index reports changes up or down, usually expressed as points and as a percentage, in a specific financial market, in a number of related markets, or in an economy as a whole.

Each index—and there are a large number of them—measures the market or economy it tracks from a specific starting point. That point might be as recent as the previous day or many years in the past.

For those reasons, indexes are often used as performance benchmarks against which to measure the return of investments that resemble those tracked by the index.

A market index may be calculated arithmetically or geometrically. That’s one reason two indexes tracking similar markets may report different results. Further, some indexes are weighted and others are not.

Weighting means giving more significance to some elements in the index than to others. For example, a market capitalization weighted index is more influenced by price changes in the stock of its largest companies than by price changes in the stock of its smaller companies.

Index fund

An index fund is designed to mirror the performance of a stock or bond index, such as Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500) or the Russell 2000 Index.

To achieve that goal, the fund purchases all the securities in the index, or a representative sample of them, and adds or sells investments only when the securities in the index change. Each index fund aims to keep pace with its underlying index, not outperform it.

This strategy can produce strong returns during a bull market, when the index reflects increasing prices. But it may produce disappointing returns during economic downturns, when an actively managed fund might take advantage of investment opportunities if they arise to outperform the index.

Because the typical index fund’s portfolio is not actively managed, most index funds have lower-than-average management costs and smaller expense ratios. However, not all index funds tracking the same index provide the same level of performance, in large part because of different fee structures.

Index of Leading Economic Indicators

This monthly composite of ten economic measurements was developed to track and help forecast changing patterns in the economy. It is compiled by The Conference Board, a business research group.

The components are adjusted from time to time to help improve the accuracy of the index. In the past, it has success- fully predicted major downturns, although it has also warned of some that did not materialize.

Consumer-related components include the number of building permits issued, manufacturers’ new orders for consumer goods, and the index of consumer expectations.

Financial components include the S&P 500 Index of widely held stocks, the real money supply, and the interest rate spread.

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Business-related components include the average work week in the manufacturing sector, average initial claims for unemployment benefits, non- defense plant and equipment orders, and vendor performance, which reflects how quickly companies receive deliveries from suppliers.

Index option

Index options are puts and calls on a stock index rather than on an individual stock. They give investors the opportunity to hedge their portfolios or speculate on gains or losses in a segment of the market.

For example, if you own a group of technology stocks but think technology stocks are going to fall, you might buy a put option on a technology index rather than selling short a number of different technology stocks.

If the value of the index does fall, you could exercise the option and collect cash to partially offset a drop in the value of your portfolio.

However, to use this strategy success- fully, the index you choose must perform the way the portion of the portfolio you’re trying to hedge performs.

And since changes in an index are difficult to predict, index options tend to be volatile. The more time there is until an index option expires, the more volatile the option tends to be.

Indexed annuity

An indexed annuity is a deferred annuity whose return is tied to the performance of a particular equity market index.

Your investment principal is usually protected against severe market down- turns, in that you may have an annual return of 0% but not less than 0%.

However, earnings are generally capped at a fixed percentage, so any index gains that are above the cap are not reflected in your annual return.

Indexed annuity contracts generally require you to commit your assets for a particular term, such as 5, 10, or 15 years. Some but not all contracts limit your participation rate, which means that only a percentage of your premium has a potential to earn a rate higher than a guaranteed rate.

Individual retirement account

Individual retirement accounts are one of two types of individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) that provide tax ad-

vantages as you save for retirement. The other is an individual retirement annuity.

Both have the same annual contribu- tion limits, catch-up provisions if you’re 50 or older, and withdrawal requirements. In addition, both are available in three varieties: traditional deductible, traditional nondeductible, and Roth.

The primary difference between the two is in the investments you make with your contributions.

You open an individual retirement account with a financial services firm, such as a bank, brokerage firm, or investment company, as custodian. The accounts are self-directed, which means you can choose among the investments available through your custodian.

In common practice, however, perhaps because more people have individual retirement accounts, the acronym IRA tends to be used to refer to an account rather than annuity or arrangement.