Tax Planning Lawyers in the USA

It is wise to know what the tax changes are when planning for the next tax season. Following are a few of the changes for 2013 that could affect the amount of taxes that you will pay.

A study was released earlier this year by the American Journal of Medicine regarding bankruptcies caused by medical bills that were simply too overwhelming to address. They found that in 2007 62% of all bankruptcies were due to an inability to pay health care debt. If you are in a position to assist family members who may be in financial difficulty due to medical bills you may be concerned about the gift tax.

Leaving behind your final wishes via the construction of a Last Will is part of the equation when you are making preparations for the inevitable. But words on a piece of paper are not going to accomplish much in and of themselves. Someone is going to have to actually make sure that your wishes are carried out,and this will be the executor or personal representative.

As they say time flies,and it is kind of hard to believe that we are so far into 2012 already. This is a very interesting year on a number of different levels and coming changes to the tax code are among the points of intrigue. You may remember that the Bush era tax cuts were scheduled to expire at the end of 2010.

The Federal estate tax is unified with the gift tax.As a result,gifts that you give are subject to the same 35% tax that is applied to your estate. It should be noted that there is a unified gift/estate tax exemption and right now it sits at $5.12 million. However, these numbers are only accurate for 2012.As laws currently stand,the exclusion is going to be reduced to $1 million in 2013 and the rate is scheduled to rise to 55%.

Individuals who are receiving Social Security did not receive any cost-of-living adjustments in 2009 or 2010. These adjustments are given based on the rate of inflation,and during those years increases were not justified based on the parameters that are used. Unfortunately, the health care costs that seniors must pay out-of-pocket rose during that time by just over 14%, and this underscores how difficult is to get by if you are overly reliant on Social Security.

Once you come to the realization that your store of financial assets exceeds the unified estate/gift tax exclusion amount you have a pleasant problem on your hands. You have to seek ways to gain tax efficiency,and one possibility would be to give certain types of gifts to family members or others that you care about.

Mary Smith contacted me to assist her in the sale of a vacant lot owned by both Mary and her son, Michael. Mary originally went to a local title agency and was advised that she cannot complete the sale because her son is a minor – i.e., under the age of 18 years. Mary owns a 50% interest in the property, and her 17 year old son, Michael, owns the remaining 50% interest. They have a Buyer ready to purchase the lot for $25,000.00.

A non-wage levy seizes the taxpayer’s right, title and interest to all property that is in the possession of the levied party (the person or company holding your property for you) at the time the levy is served. It seizes no more and no less. The exemptions from levy are few and meager, but they exist and consist of the first (sometimes the last) line of defense against the levy.

The wise taxpayer will always ask his or her tax lawyer or tax audit representative in cases like tax audit cases first about the statute of limitations in the case. At its simplest, a statute of limitations is just what it says–a limit on the amount of time the IRS has to perform a particular task, like audit taxes or collect taxes. And, it is set by statute, hence “statute of limitations.”