Tax Help Question – Unfunded Trust Tax Return

Question:  My client has an unfunded trust established in 1999.  A bank account was originally opened up for the trust but the bank account was opened up under her late husbands social security number.  The bank has changed the identification number to the tax id of the trust.  The IRS has now sent the client a letter requesting all back trust returns.  Does a trust tax return need to be filed?

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Tax Question – Theft Loss due to Ponzi Scheme

Question: I’ve got a tax question from one of my clients. They have a loss from a ponzi scheme, but it was in an IRA. I was unable to find something on IRS website specific to this situation, but a regular investment would be treated as a theft loss. I’m thinking the IRA would also be handled the same way since it was a theft too. Have you run across anything like this? Continue reading…

Tax Question: Help on Closing Down LLC

Question:  When a company decides to close and they have about $15,000 in inventory that the owners will keep, do the owners need to do anything special for their taxes other than their normal tax return?  The company is an LLC. Continue reading…

Tax Question – Qualifying Child for Health Savings Account

Question: My wife and I have a question about our HSA. We have my kids on her insurance. They are her step kids, and HSA, and BCBS said it was okay. But come to find our we can not use our HSA account for the kids unless she claims them as dependents. Someone that my wife talked too said that there is a law that says we can. Can you help clarify this for us? Continue reading…

Tax Help Question on Volunteering

Question:  My father is retired and volunteers about 40 hours per week at the church doing maintenance. He was told my a business owner to open an LLC and get a letter from the church for his work to used as a tax deduction. Is this really plausable since they LLC wouldn’t be generating income? How would this effect his personal taxes? Is there a way to actually do this? Thank you. Continue reading…

Tax Question – Copy of Tax Return

Question: Our attorney requested a copy of a tax return related to a lawsuit.  It has been three months now with no response from the IRS.  The trial is around the corner and the attorney seems confused as to why the IRS has not responded.  I did know if this was normal for the IRS, if there was special procedures to obtain such paperwork which the attorney is not aware of, or something else you might know of that we haven’t even thought of yet.  Continue reading…