How to lend money to a relative without getting whacked by the IRS (@MarketWatch)

If a family member is strapped for cash, and you're planing on helping by loaning them some money, make sure you do it properly:

Full article at Market Watch

"If you make a loan to a family member and charge zero interest, you may face unfavorable and complicated tax rules, as I’ll explain later. But you can avoid all the tax complications if you instead charge an interest rate that at least equals the IRS-approved applicable federal rate (AFR). Because AFRs are almost unbelievably low right now, you can be nice to yourself by charging the AFR while still being plenty nice to the borrowing family member as well."

For examples of how others were helped by LGBT.tax check out http://www.lgbt.tax/case