Tax Secrets of the Wealthy

Are you thinking of transferring stock to your kids, or does one or more of your kids already owns stock in your closely held business?

Recently, I read an article titled, “What Makes For Success?” by Kemmons Wilson, the founder of Holiday Inn.

There are many types of qualified plans: Pension, profit-sharing, 401(k) and IRAs are the most popular.

First, a simple question: How much would you pay for property worth $100,000, if you must spend $25,000 (to fix it, commissions, special taxes or whatever) prior to collecting your $100,000?

Unfortunately, the answer is ‘yes.’ The quote that is the title of this article is how a letter sent to me started. The rest of the letter really tugged hard at your heart and had the single goal of getting ...

Joe DiMaggio, unquestionably one of the great baseball legends of all time, now plays in the big ballpark in the sky. He knew how to use his arm and his glove, but mostly his bat, to win countless ballgames. When ...

Are you thinking of transferring stock to your kids, or does one or more of your kids already owns stock in your closely held business?

The typical reader of this column, (we’ll call him Joe), who calls me for estate planning help has two basic characteristics: He has been successful at accumulating wealth (almost always in a business he started or was created by a ...

The annual-readers-test article is always fun for me. The test prevents millions of dollars from being lost to the IRS (by you, the column readers) and gives me enough material for many more articles.

It’s true: Real-life is stranger than fiction. Here are two true-client tax stories — with almost identical facts — involving transferring a family business to the kids. One caused a financial-tax train wreck; the second a tax-free victory.

Most closely held/family businesses are S corporations. Good! Almost all profitable small businesses should be an S corporation (pays no tax), as opposed to a tax-paying C corporation. Yet over the years at my many tax-planning seminars, one of my ...

Webster’s Dictionary defines guarantee, “an assurance that something will be done as specified.”

Do you have a buy-sell agreement? Thinking of signing one?... Read every word of this article first

Ready? Everybody on their feet. A standing ovation for the IRS.

This is a war story. A true one. It involves a real-life family business owner, Joe, with real-life problems. Joe was advised by his lawyer and accountant to sell his business, Success Co., to his daughter for $1.8 million. He ...