Before going into private practice, I was an attorney with the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel, in Washington, DC. I worked in the Passthroughs and Special Industries division, and primarily drafted private letter rulings, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, and regulations. On my very first day there, I was told that my sole responsibility… Read More
Estate of Jorgensen v. Commissioner: IRS wins another Family Limited Partnership Case due to the Taxpayer Doing Everything Wrong
In writing a blog, or in writing anything, the most important question is “Who is your audience?” So far, my posts have been aimed towards what I call “the sophisticated layman.” I have been writing for the educated reader who is not an expert in matters regarding estate planning or tax, and is interested in… Read More
Internet Documents Update: I Received Emailed Copies of My Trust
This isn’t an “official” entry in my ongoing series, but just a quick update. Yesterday I emailed the internet document company asking about the status of my documents. Today I received an email telling me that, “as a courtesy” they are sending my PDF copies of my documents. So I have them. Still, I want… Read More
IRS Publishes 2009 Edition of Publication 559, Surviors, Executors and Administrators (to be used with 2008 Returns)
The 2009 Edition of Pub 559, which advises Personal Representatives and Executors how to prepare the income tax returns of decedents whose estate they are administering, has been published by the IRS. It is to be used for the 2008 year. The full PDF of the publication can be downloaded from the IRS’s Website here…. Read More
IRS to Reduce Penalty for Offshore Account Holders (If They Fess Up)
For most people, taxes are relatively straightforward. Not easy, not pleasant. But straightforward. If you have a bank account that earns interest during the year, then at the beginning of the following year your bank sends you a Form 1099-INT reporting the interest that you earned, and sends a copy of that same form to… Read More
My Website Internet Will/Trust Experiment Part 2: Logging on
As I posted in my last post, I decided to go to an internet website that purports to provide wills and trusts (among other things), to see how good their service really is, and whether they are properly helping their customers. I will not say their name right now, except to say while their zip… Read More
Sen. Grassley: GOP will Have Leverage on Estate Tax Fight
I am waiting to see if my Internet ordered trust is sent to me before making any more posts on that topic. While waiting, I want to write again about the estate tax. In 2001, the Republicans finally “won” their 30 year battle to repeal the estate tax, in a way that only a Congressperson… Read More
New Estate Planning Blog for Florida Parents just launched
I would like to welcome the Molder Legal Group to the South Florida Estate Planning blogging community. Their Florida Parents Page blog recently launched. It looks like their blog will be more tightly focused on planning for parents with young children. Good luck, Jason and Nicole.
A Website Internet Will/Trust Experiment Part 1: The Challenge.
I keep hearing from people what a great “deal” a certain internet website is. You just log on, type your information, and you can instantly get wills, trusts, corporations, trademarks, etc, just as good as one prepared by an Estate Planning or other Attorney for a lot less money. As I posted before, I believe… Read More
Six Ways to Save Taxes
I found this article from Newsday interesting. They list six ways to save taxes, based mostly on depressed asset values, something that I’ve written about before. Convert your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. “Undo” or recharacterize a Roth IRA conversion if your initial conversion was in 2008 when values were significantly higher. If you have… Read More
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