March 18, 2020
Breaking News: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced on March 20, 2020 that the IRS is moving Tax Day to July 15, 2020 from April 15. Accordingly, taxpayers can now delay filing and paying taxes until July 15. Taxpayers can also still delay paying first quarter 2020 estimates until July 15. For details click here.
The Treasury announced yesterday, March 17, 2020, invoking the…
January 23, 2020
The SECURE Act1 makes sweeping changes to the required minimum distribution (“RMD”) rules for retirement accounts. Except for a few types of beneficiaries, it eliminates the most popular tax-advantaged planning feature - the ability of a retirement beneficiary to stretch RMDs over the beneficiary’s life expectancy. The elimination of the stretch fundamentally changes how beneficiaries are taxed…
January 23, 2020
The SECURE Act, signed into law on December 20, 2019, may help alleviate some of the burdens small employers face when providing retirement plans. Here are a few key things you need to know when evaluating what, if any, changes you should make to take advantage of this new legislation.
OPEN MULTIPLE EMPLOYER PLANS
While Multiple Employer Plans (or MEPs) are not new to the retirement industry, they…
May 23, 2019
The Initial Probate
Most people are familiar with the concept of probating an estate upon the death of the decedent. The administration of the decedent’s estate is initiated in the county and state where the decedent lived at the time of his or her death, known as the decedent’s domicile. Depending on the state in which the decedent lived, the estate administration procedure may be different if…
April 7, 2019
The United States Supreme Court recently put an end to West Virginia’s practice of exempting pension income of certain State law enforcement officers from the State’s income tax while disallowing the exemption for similarly situated federal retirees. At issue was a provision in the State’s tax code that exempts from West Virginia income tax pension payments received from a number of pension funds…
October 10, 2018
On June 21, 2018, in a 5-4 opinion, the United States Supreme Court overturned Quill Corp. v. North Dakota and National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue of Illinois, which had previously held that a state cannot require an out-of-state seller with no physical presence in the state to collect and remit sales taxes on goods the seller ships to consumers in the state. See South Dakota v. …
January 22, 2018
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Tax Act”) into law which makes significant changes to the estate, gift, and generation skipping taxes.
The Tax Act doubles the estate, gift, and generation skipping tax exemptions to approximately $11.2 Million per person for 2018, which provides significant relief for high net worth individuals and families with valuable…
December 19, 2017
New Claims Procedure for ERISA Plans: Providing Disability Benefits
In December 2016, the Department of Labor published final regulations in connection with claims procedures for plans providing disability benefits. The regulations were originally scheduled to be effective for claims filed under a plan on or after January 1, 2018, but that date has been delayed until April 1, 2018. The regulations…
October 9, 2017
Portability
Since the concept of “portability” was made permanent in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, it has been an essential and beneficial estate planning tool. Portability allows a decedent to carryover his or her unused estate and gift tax exclusion amount ($5.49 million in 2017) for use by the surviving spouse’s estate. Thus, if a decedent has not used all of his or her estate…
September 11, 2017
In recent years, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) has increased its audits of micro-captive insurance companies in the belief that small businesses are using them to insure against improbable risks on which they never pay claims, and which the premiums return to the business owners or heirs with little to no tax. In fact, micro-captive insurance is one of the IRS Large Business and…
March 1, 2017
Overview.
Effective for tax years beginning on January 1, 2018, the IRS has a new set of rules to govern partnership audit procedures. Since the vast majority of limited liability companies (LLCs) are taxed as partnerships, these new rules may require amendments to LLC operating agreements as well as partnership agreements to ensure that the economic burden of future tax assessments are allocated…
December 12, 2016
Beginning with returns for tax year 2016, a new law will go into effect which revises the due dates for partnership and C corporation returns and changes the extended due dates for some returns. The new rules are summarized below.
Due Dates Prior to Change
Before this change, domestic corporations (including S corporations) had to file their returns by the 15th day of the third month after the end…
March 18, 2020
Breaking News: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced on March 20, 2020 that the IRS is moving Tax Day to July 15, 2020 from April 15. Accordingly, taxpayers can now delay filing and paying taxes until July 15. Taxpayers can also still delay paying first quarter 2020 estimates until July 15. For details click here.
The Treasury announced yesterday, March 17, 2020, invoking the…
January 23, 2020
The SECURE Act1 makes sweeping changes to the required minimum distribution (“RMD”) rules for retirement accounts. Except for a few types of beneficiaries, it eliminates the most popular tax-advantaged planning feature - the ability of a retirement beneficiary to stretch RMDs over the beneficiary’s life expectancy. The elimination of the stretch fundamentally changes how beneficiaries are taxed…
January 23, 2020
The SECURE Act, signed into law on December 20, 2019, may help alleviate some of the burdens small employers face when providing retirement plans. Here are a few key things you need to know when evaluating what, if any, changes you should make to take advantage of this new legislation.
OPEN MULTIPLE EMPLOYER PLANS
While Multiple Employer Plans (or MEPs) are not new to the retirement industry, they…
May 23, 2019
The Initial Probate
Most people are familiar with the concept of probating an estate upon the death of the decedent. The administration of the decedent’s estate is initiated in the county and state where the decedent lived at the time of his or her death, known as the decedent’s domicile. Depending on the state in which the decedent lived, the estate administration procedure may be different if…
April 7, 2019
The United States Supreme Court recently put an end to West Virginia’s practice of exempting pension income of certain State law enforcement officers from the State’s income tax while disallowing the exemption for similarly situated federal retirees. At issue was a provision in the State’s tax code that exempts from West Virginia income tax pension payments received from a number of pension funds…
October 10, 2018
On June 21, 2018, in a 5-4 opinion, the United States Supreme Court overturned Quill Corp. v. North Dakota and National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue of Illinois, which had previously held that a state cannot require an out-of-state seller with no physical presence in the state to collect and remit sales taxes on goods the seller ships to consumers in the state. See South Dakota v. …
January 22, 2018
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Tax Act”) into law which makes significant changes to the estate, gift, and generation skipping taxes.
The Tax Act doubles the estate, gift, and generation skipping tax exemptions to approximately $11.2 Million per person for 2018, which provides significant relief for high net worth individuals and families with valuable…
December 19, 2017
New Claims Procedure for ERISA Plans: Providing Disability Benefits
In December 2016, the Department of Labor published final regulations in connection with claims procedures for plans providing disability benefits. The regulations were originally scheduled to be effective for claims filed under a plan on or after January 1, 2018, but that date has been delayed until April 1, 2018. The regulations…
October 9, 2017
Portability
Since the concept of “portability” was made permanent in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, it has been an essential and beneficial estate planning tool. Portability allows a decedent to carryover his or her unused estate and gift tax exclusion amount ($5.49 million in 2017) for use by the surviving spouse’s estate. Thus, if a decedent has not used all of his or her estate…
September 11, 2017
In recent years, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) has increased its audits of micro-captive insurance companies in the belief that small businesses are using them to insure against improbable risks on which they never pay claims, and which the premiums return to the business owners or heirs with little to no tax. In fact, micro-captive insurance is one of the IRS Large Business and…
March 1, 2017
Overview.
Effective for tax years beginning on January 1, 2018, the IRS has a new set of rules to govern partnership audit procedures. Since the vast majority of limited liability companies (LLCs) are taxed as partnerships, these new rules may require amendments to LLC operating agreements as well as partnership agreements to ensure that the economic burden of future tax assessments are allocated…
December 12, 2016
Beginning with returns for tax year 2016, a new law will go into effect which revises the due dates for partnership and C corporation returns and changes the extended due dates for some returns. The new rules are summarized below.
Due Dates Prior to Change
Before this change, domestic corporations (including S corporations) had to file their returns by the 15th day of the third month after the end…
