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

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.

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

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.

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

Years ago (from the 1950s to the late 70s), it was the custom to put real estate in a separate corporation (R/E Corp.), which would then lease the real estate to the corporation operating the business. It was a lousy ...

Trying to beat the income tax collector is a time-honored annual activity. But you only get one chance to beat (or be beaten by) the estate tax collector. In most cases, an organized estate plan leaves the collector with an ...

Recently, I read an article titled, “What Makes For Success?” by Kemmons Wilson, the founder of Holiday Inn. He said, “It is great to attain wealth, but money is really just one way – and hardly the best way – ...

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

If you use the right tax tools and techniques together with the right professionals (lawyer, insurance consultant, and CPA), you can and will develop a plan to beat the IRS. Every time. And legally.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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

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

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.

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 ...

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

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

Do you have a significant amount of money ($300,000 or more) in one or more qualified plans? For example, an IRA, profit-sharing plan, 401(k), etc.

Recently, I read an article titled, “What makes for success?” by Kemmons Wilson, the founder of Holiday Inn. He said, “It is great to attain wealth, but money is really just one way — and hardly the best way — ...

There are many types of qualified plans: Pension, profit-sharing, 401 (k) and IRAs are the most popular. True enough, qualified plans are a great tax strategy if (1) you ultimately need the plan funds for retirement, (2) you are in ...

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? ... Certainly not more than $75,000 … Or less, ...

Unfortunately, the answer is ‘yes.’ The quote that is the title of this article is how a letter sent to me started.

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.

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 ...

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 ...

You’ll like this story. A column reader (Joe) called to hire our firm to help him prove that book value was the right price to be used to buy out his 50 percent partner (Ralph). Joe was willing to pay ...

Want to make a grown man cry? Tell him that all those beautiful dollars in his qualified plans (profit-sharing, 401(k), IRA and the like) are only worth $.27 cents to $.30 after taxes. Sorry, but it’s true. The IRS hits ...

Sooner or later, in addition to all the other problems that a business faces, the problem of succession surfaces. Now, like it or not, if one or more of your children are active in the business, your business life and ...

Writing this column is fun. Even more fun is consulting with column readers to solve their real-life family and tax problems. When a reader consults with me, I ask him/her to send some basic data including a copy of their ...

I’m about to kill a few sacred cows. Qualified-employee-benefit-plan cows to be exact. This is a painful subject.

This article was written while “burning the midnight oil”… Why? Because about 95 percent of this column’s readers who call me — just to ask a question or who actually become clients — have a significant portion of their wealth ...

There is little in the tax law to make you smile. The higher your tax bracket, the worse it gets. Just to show you how much fun the tax law is not, let’s crunch some numbers.

Most successful business owners (let’s call our guy Joe) have two loves in their life: Their family and their business. With rare exceptions, it’s family first.

Now the hard part. Actually, when dad and/or mom want to transfer the family business to one or more of the kids, some challenging problems arise. But, in practice, the parent-to-kid business transfer is a piece of cake when compared ...

For years, I have been preaching that your estate plan is not done unless you pass the “final test.” What is the final test? You must answer “Yes” to these two questions: (1) Does my estate plan transfer all — ...

Politicians — the Washington gang, including the House, Senate and president — are forever talking about raising or lowering the income tax rate. It’s election time. Really, the silly season for floating “what’s-best-for-the-country-income tax rate ideas.” And once in a ...