Questions on the New "fiscal cliff" Regulations

Questions: Please clarify the “new” “fiscal cliff”  income tax regulations regarding:
Taxes on capital gains and dividends will also rise to 20 percent. Is the rise progressive. i.e. only applies to unearned income over $500,000 ?

Taxes will also rise by five percentage points for large estates, over what amount ?

Married couples who earn $300,000 or more will face caps on itemized deductions and exemptions. Please clarify Continue reading…


IRS Audit Risk – Reporting No Wages to S Corporation Officer

An S Corporation is a popular entity structure for small businesses.  Many tax practitioners help small business set up S Corporations to reduce self-employment tax.  This strategy can back fire if the corporation reports unreasonably low or no compensation to the officers/owners.  This is an audit risk as the IRS is cracking down on business for not reporting officer wages.
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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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Quote of the Month – December 2012

When asking yourself questions such as “What is my purpose?” or “What is the meaning of my life?”, it is more important to live the question than getting an answer to the question.  Deepak Chopra


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…