Uncategorized

Sometimes it is important to closely consider whose interests are being promoted in an estate plan. It is obvious, for starters, that the individual or couple engaged in thinking about and implementing a sound and purposeful estate plan are promoting objectives that...

Symbolic but meaningful. That’s the message the Internal Revenue Service is seeking to convey to taxpayers in California and nationally regarding its recently released “Taxpayer Bill of Rights.” Do we really need such a thing? Apparently so, given the sheer degree to...

When we were talking about IRS audits a few weeks ago, we mentioned that audits are no longer random. The IRS has filters in place that flag tax returns that fall outside of the norm or include information that requires a closer look. One example was a return that...

One of the disadvantages of being a celebrity is that you have no privacy. One of the disadvantages to being a celebrity living in California is that court records are much easier to come by. Divorces are not sealed, for example, except in rare situations. Reporters...

We are picking up where we left off (here) with our discussion of the lawsuits over Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney's will. When Rooney died in April, his widow, Jan, told the press she had not seen him for a year. It seems the couple had separated after Rooney accused...

We are back to discussing what the average taxpayer should do if the mails brings an audit notice from the IRS. In our May 16 post, we talked about the odds of being audited -- very slim for someone with an average paycheck -- and the types of things on a tax return...

When we wrote in early April (here) about Mickey Rooney's death, we briefly touched on the situation with his estranged wife, Jan. The couple had been married for 36 years, but when Rooney passed away at age 93, Jan told the press that she had not seen her husband for...

As we said in our May 2 post, the average American taxpayer has a 1 percent chance of being audited by the IRS. The chance increases to 3.26 percent, though, for taxpayers earning $200,000 in 2013. If you earned more than $1 million -- not unheard of in the Bay Area...

Although most Americans have already filed their 2013 taxes and are waiting to hear back from the IRS, there are still some who have yet to submit their returns. One of the thoughts on many taxpayers’ minds after submitting their tax return is, “I hope everything was...

Here in California and in a majority of states across the country, the state government no longer charges an estate tax to residents. Estate tax, often referred to as the “death tax” by critics, is sometimes considered a redundant tax since the assets in...