IRV BLACKMAN

• Tax Secrets: Don’t fall victim to the estate tax monster Published 01/29/2010 at 10:57 a.m.

  If your net worth is high enough to be subject to the evil estate tax, chances are you worked your tail off all or most of your adult life to accumulate your wealth.

• Tax Secrets: What you tax advisor doesn’t know can hurt you Published 01/14/2010 at 3:31 p.m.

  The plain fact is you only know what you know. Put another way, no matter how smart you are, your knowledge is limited.

• Tax Secrets: Control both your business and your estate Published 01/08/2010 at 3:32 p.m.

  When I was still a young CPA/lawyer in the mid-1950s, I did my first consultation with a family business owner who had the it’s-time-to-transfer-my-business-to-the-kids itch.

• Tax Secrets: Mistakes your insurance company doesn’t want you to know about Published 12/04/2009 at 4:07 p.m.

  Year after year, our office is asked to give a second opinion on the completed estate plans of owners of family businesses. It is rare – very rare – to analyze the estate plan (particularly the life insurance policies) of ...

• Tax Secrets: Seeking relief from the common estate tax Published 11/25/2009 at 4:23 p.m.

  The United States has its own swine-like flu in all 50 of the United States.

• Seeking relief from the common estate tax Published 11/20/2009 at 11:54 a.m.

  The United States has its own swine-like flu in all 50 of the United States.

• New estate tax law is on the way Published 10/23/2009 at 4:01 p.m.

  Let’s start with some new tax laws Congress is likely to pass before 2009 ends. You must divide these new-tax-law candidates into two distinct groups: the good guys and the bad guys.

• Maintain charity while growing wealth Published 10/16/2009 at 2:51 p.m.

  Most clients (usually readers of this column), when I ask, “What is your charitable intent?” respond with something like, “Nothing significant.”

• Second opinion saves reader a fortune Published 10/09/2009 at 2:28 p.m.

  You’ll like this true story. A reader, let’s call him Joe, of this column had completed his transfer-to-his-kids plan and his estate plan in 1996.

• Giving your kids the business Published 10/02/2009 at 1:58 p.m.

  You’ve had it. After 15, 25 (well, you fill in the number) or more years of building your business, you want out.

• Taxes: 227 ways to beat ‘em Published 02/19/2010 at 5:19 p.m.

  There are three main ways the federal tax law picks your pocket and becomes your legal partner... Outrageous! The purpose of this article is to show you how to fight back.

• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: Who should own business real estate? Published 08/18/2009 at 9:48 p.m.

  The first commandment of my someday-I-will-write-it bible of taxation would be “Thou shalt not put real estate into a corporation.” We see it at least a dozen times year: When readers of this column ask us to do a tax ...

• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: Solve your business succession problem Published 08/11/2009 at 9:21 p.m.

  Own a family business? Want to transfer it to your kids? Then you’ll love this article. It’s about an old IRS letter ruling that is one of my favorites. It might be labeled “the lazy man’s way to plan your ...

• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: Business succession Published 08/04/2009 at 9:22 p.m.

  Many of the columns I write and the seminars I give deal with family business succession planning. Can you guess the most common succession situation and related problems? Getting the business from dad and/or mom to one or more of ...

• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: Captive audience: Are you among them? Published 07/28/2009 at 10:30 p.m.

  The Internal Revenue Code is not a friendly creature. It is designed to “taketh” your money; “giveth” is not in its vocabulary.

• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: Leveraged gifts: A great tax strategy for you and your family Published 07/21/2009 at 9:19 p.m.

  Want to win the estate tax game? Think gifts. Leveraged gifts.

• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: A tale of two clients Published 07/14/2009 at 9:54 p.m.

  Succession planning has always been and still is a hot topic. Let’s start with a classical fact pattern and the tragic tax results that are sure to follow for the uninformed.

• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: Roth IRA a sure tax winner; tax-free E/R plan even better Published 06/30/2009 at 8:20 p.m. 1 Comment

  Every tax newsletter, journal, and other publication (I read a bunch of them in my never-ending struggle to stay current on the tax law) has had one or more articles on the virtues of Roth IRAs in the past three ...

• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: A big breakthrough - Reader-insurance-analysis test yields hard to believe positive results Published 06/23/2009 at 9 p.m.

  About six months ago this tax column ran a long two-part article titled: “Slash premium costs, yet increase life insurance benefits.

• Tax Secrets of the Wealthy: Succession planning Published 06/16/2009 at 8:49 p.m.

  Do you own all or part of a closely-held business? Like it or not, some day you’ll have to value that business.

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