It was a difficult and acrimonious year for the President and Congress. Taxes, spending, and the deficit caused for many battles. However, approaching an election year for both the Congress and the President will present new challenges on the issue of...
Recently in Developments - Other Category
As the saying goes, you only get one shot to make a good first impression. In difficult economic environments, the first impression may be the only opportunity you have to impress a prospective employer. Forbes magazine has laid out some...
Continue reading "Seven Tips On Making A Good First Impression"
Sanford Millar has published "New Offshore Traps" at JD Supra describing some of the foreign assets that the IRS expects to be reported, including foreign trusts and other holdings (related to aggregate value).Posted by Michael Nissenbaum, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies...
Continue reading "Form 8938 "Specified Foreign Financial Assets""
Tax evasion has become a popular political theme. In movies and popular stories swiss banks have been known for their bank secrecy tradition. However, often overlooked is the role of small banks in hiding bank identities which leads to tax...
A recent report by Fronterion, an international company involved with the outsourcing of legal work, indicates that due to inflation abroad and weak job markets in the United States and the United Kingdom, contract attorneys charge less per hour than...
Continue reading "E-Discovery Outsourcing to Ohio is Now Cheaper than India"
Dennis Kennedy writes about the emerging usefulness of SSDs in the legal industry. SSDs remove many of the annoyances that are customary for regular disk drives such as slow, noisy start ups and bigger space requirements. Mr. Kennedy notes...
Continue reading "Solid State Drives (SSDs) Can Be Useful for Your Law Practice"
The Sensible Estate Tax Act of 2011, introduced by Rep. McDermont, aims to restore estate tax rates to pre-2001 levels. The bill, effective December 31, 2011, will also affect family limited partnerships and GRATs. Should Congress not take action...
Continue reading "'Sensible Estate Tax of 2011' Introduced to 'Restore Fairness to the Estate Tax'"
Switzerland is considering imposing uniform inheritance and gift tax laws for all cantons upon wealthy residents after 2011. Currently, many cantons impose inheritance taxes but exempt spouses and direct descendants. The proposed law would impose a 20 percent tax...
Continue reading "Switzerland Considering Uniform Inheritance and Gift Tax Laws for the Wealthy "
Schmalbeck and Soled claim the congressional raise of the estate tax exemption to $5 million will remove executor incentive to report assets at their "lowest defensible values". Considered to be a legislative compromise by politicians, the estate tax exemption...
Continue reading "Tax Revenue Affected by Raised Estate Tax Exemption "
The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel sent a letter to the tax writing committees of the United States Congress recommending certain changes to the tax law system. Their recommendations span different topics including marital deduction, portability, claw back,...
The New York Times Your Money Team has created a special series titled, Which Way Home? The series presents stories of real homeowners in the fallout of the bursting of the housing bubble. Some of the stories are: how a financial pro...
Continue reading "NY Times Your Money Series Has New Special Section on Home Ownership"
Republicans in both chambers of Congress are discussing proposals that would target the wealthy. Legislation introduced by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and Oklahoma Representative James Lankford would deny unemployment insurance benefits to millionaires. Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz wants to introduce...
Karen Hube has written "GOP Hopefuls' tax plans don't give average Americans anything to be happy about" for the Washington times. The article describes the tax plans of the three main Republican presidential hopefuls; Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Mitt...
Continue reading "Average Americans Wouldn't Benefit from GOP Front-Runners' Tax Plans"
Robert Pear wrote "Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation's Income, Study Finds" for the New York times. Over the last three decades, the share of America's income from the top 1% has more than doubled. From 1979 to 2007, inflation-adjusted...
Continue reading "Doubled Share of Nation's Income from Top 1% of Earners "
As of October 1, 2011, Florida law closely conforms to the UPOAA. For example: springing powers are prohibited, all powers must be durable, third parties must accept copies of the document, and an agent cannot delegate his or her...
Continue reading "Florida Law Now Closer to Uniform Power of Attorney Act (UPOAA)"