Family investment partnerships (IPs) are frequently used to manage and control multigenerational family wealth. Aggregating family assets in an IP may also result in significant economic and tax benefits. Accomplishing a family’s investment goals, however, requires understanding its investment objectives, the nature of its underlying investments, and the degree of investment flexibility sought by participating…
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Category Archives: Individual Tax
The 2012 IRS FBAR Voluntary Disclosure Initiative
For years, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been pursuing the disclosure of information regarding undeclared interests of U.S. taxpayers (or those who ought to be U.S. taxpayers) in foreign financial accounts. On January 9, 2012, the IRS announced yet another offshore voluntary disclosure program (the 2012 OVDI) following the success of the 2009 Offshore…
$1 Billion Awaits People Who Haven’t Filed 2008 Taxes
Tax refunds amounting to over $1 billion are awaiting an estimated 1 million people who still have not filed a federal income tax return for 2008. To collect, taxpayers and preparers must file a return with the Internal Revenue Service no later than Tuesday, April 17. The IRS estimated that half of the potential tax…
IRS Refund Delay and Real-Time Tax System
The Internal Revenue Service needed to put the brakes on its tax refunds this tax season when newly installed filters to prevent tax fraud and identity theft held up processing for a week or more. The IRS sent out a notice to tax professionals last Thursday apologizing for the delay. The IRS noted that the…
Obama’s Minimum Tax on Millionaires May Conflict with AMT
President Obama stuck to his main priorities in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, with just a few surprises in the way of tax reform. “I don’t think those priorities are particularly new,” said Rick Bailine, principal in charge of McGladrey’s Washington National Tax Office, in an interview Wednesday. “The three priorities…
Obama Says High-Earners Should Pay at Least 30% of Income as Tax
President Barack Obama called on Congress to require the highest U.S. earners to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes, building on his election-year push for what he terms economic fairness. The president’s proposal in his State of the Union address tonight would create a minimum tax on income exceeding $1 million. That floor…
Prepaid college plans: shrinking options, rising risks
Jim and Celeste Durkin thought when they began investing six years ago in Illinois state’s prepaid college savings plan that they were locking in a bargain price if their daughter Caroline, who is now 10, eventually attended the University of Illinois. That might not be the case. The plan took some risky bets on private…
IRS Extends Tax-Filing Deadline to April 17
The Internal Revenue Service opened the 2012 tax season on Wednesday by extending the tax-filing deadline until April 17. Taxpayers will have until Tuesday, April 17 to file their 2011 tax returns and pay any tax due because April 15 falls on a Sunday, and Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in the District of Columbia,…
Home office deduction
With unemployment still near the highest rate in decades, it is not surprising to find many people working out of their homes. Now may be a good time to review the criteria for claiming a deduction for the business use of part of a person’s residence…
Biggest Tax Stories of 2011
There was not a ton of tax news this year, due to a welcome lack of legislation. So for one year in a row, the Internal Revenue Code was not a constantly moving target. Thank you Congress. Still, there were two significant developments and one significant non-development. Here, in my opinion, are the three biggest…
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