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Most Recent Posts

City Taxes Trip Up Investment Advisor Restructuring

So the owner employees instead of getting a flow through from an S corporation were now getting a flow through from a partnership.  Six of one, half a dozen of the other? Maybe for federal and state income tax, but not for the New York City Unincorporated Business Tax, which at 4% is nothing to sneeze at.

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Pickett’s Charge 150 – Aftermath

As we walked to our car I asked CV what her overall impression was.  She said that she was strongly reaffirmed in her belief that war is stupid, irresponsible, obscene and a waste of human life.  She thinks there is a better way to resolve conflict than sending your children to be slaughtered. (She had been really impressed by the comment by one of the interpreters that over 100,000 Civil War soldiers were under fifteen, some as young as nine.) She thinks that if we were to spend as much money on learning skillful conflict resolution as we do on war and preparations for war, we would be a world at peace.  She thinks we associate war with honor, duty and integrity, but it is really about slaughtering your children.

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Appeals Court Approves Michael Dell’s Proposition 13 Dodge

 Wayne Lusvardi in Fox and Hounds called the story an urban myth because if fails to distinguish between the sale of real estate and the sale of a business.  It happens that there was a deemed sale of the real estate for income tax purposes along with the rest of the business assets, but that’s not property taxes.  He also pointed out that in the long run, thanks to the massive renovation, there will be an increase in the property tax base.  Of course, in the short run, there is that more than $300,000 refund.

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Military Housing Allowance Much More Limited Than Clergy’s

Military Housing Allowance Much More Limited Than Clergy’s

Probably the main reason that I just had to write about this case is the reference to JROTC.  My own experience with the program clearly demonstrated that I was ill-suited for any sort of a military career, but I do have very fond memories of the instructors who were among the more colorful members of the faculty.  It was a very trying time for them and the country.  Having a Jesuit high school be military was not at all disconcerting throughout most of history.  Ignatius Loyola had been a soldier after all, but in the late sixties a few blocks north of Greenwich Village, it was rather odd.

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Kuretski – Was Legal Dream Team Really Trying To Help The Taxpayers?

Kuretski – Was Legal Dream Team Really Trying To Help The Taxpayers?

What strikes me more than anything about this drama is that it is hard to see how it could be helping the taxpayers.  Judge Srinvasan noted that there has never been an instance of a President removing a Tax Court Judge.  Judge Robert Wherry Jr., the Tax Court judge who decided the Keretski case was once accused of falling asleep during a trial, but the notion that the threat of President Obama reaching out and firing him over how he decided a collection due process case seems really silly.  Were the attorneys really maintaining that was a real potential influence?  

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Facade Easement Valuation Cannot Be Percentage Rule Of Thumb

Facade Easement Valuation Cannot Be Percentage Rule Of Thumb

The approach that NAT ended up promoting was to use a percentage valuation that had been accepted in other cases.  If that had worked, it would have ended up being circular reasoning as each valuation in the 10% range would reinforce the notion that that was the correct valuation.  You could see why they would want to do it this way.  It made planning much easier.  Once tax advisors grasped the concept, they could easily see how it would apply to their clients.  Pay something like 1% of the value of your property to a group like NAT and you get a charitable deduction for 10% +/- of its value.  The thing that did not fully register with some people was that in order for the donation to be legitimate the value of your property should actually go down by 10%.

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Step Kids Remain Step Kids After Divorce

Step Kids Remain Step Kids After Divorce

Therefore, petitioner’s divorce did not terminate his stepparent-stepchild relationships with B.E. and H.A. Accordingly, they are petitioner’s stepchildren, thus satisfying the relationship test. We therefore hold that B.E. and H.A. are petitioner’s qualifying children for purposes of the dependency exemption deductions for 2011.

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Does Sixth Circuit ABC Decision Give Tenants Incentive To Buy?

Does Sixth Circuit ABC Decision Give Tenants Incentive To Buy?

Many older leases were written during periods of much higher interest rates.  It would seem that there might be an opportunity here for owners of location-dependent businesses to pay something of a premium over fair market value, based on comparables, while coming out ahead on replacement cost with an immediate tax deduction sweetening the deal.

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