Our much anticipated 2011 year-end tax planning letter is now available. This document is chock full of helpful information to help you take advantage of those last minute tax saving strategies and to help you avoid potential pitfalls. 2011 Year End Planning Letter Please call your JMF tax professional today to setup a year-end planning session. We are [...]
For beginners and current QuickBook's users of small and medium sized businesses - see the benefits and registration attached for this 6 hour class - lunch included. Click here for more information.
Whether from hard work and dedication, inheritance of family wealth, or maybe even both, many individuals are faced with the favorable dilemma of having to deal with the transfer of wealth to the next generation(s). Regardless of whether "wealth" is defined as thousands of dollars, or billions, most taxpayers would certainly rather their heirs receive [...]
On October 26, the House of Representatives passed a bill to repeal a law that beginning in 2013 requires tax withholding of 3% of payments to vendors and contractors providing services to federal, state and local governments and their agencies. Think of the 3% as a discount or retainage for working with the government. The [...]
Below is a link to the Satisfaction of Claim form for Tuscaloosa County. Please contact the JMF Estate and Trust department if you need any assistance. We will be more than happy to help with this form, or if you need a similar form for another jursidiction. Click here to get the form.
One of the most talked about changes to the Federal estate tax centers on the portability of the decedent spouse's unused exclusion. If elected, this new rule allows the surviving spouse to take advantage of the decedent spouse's leftover exclusion after death. However, mainstream media has taken the term "portability" and used it to make it sound "out [...]
Revenue Procedure 2011-52 sets forth inflation adjusted items beginning in 2012 (read more). For an estate of any decedent dying during calendar year 2012, the basic exclusion amount is $5,120,000 for determining the amount of the unified credit against estate tax under §2010. This reflects a $120,000 increase over the 2011 basic exclusion amount. For [...]
"Carpe Diem" is a latin phrase translated as "Pluck the Day" or more fashionably, "Sieze the Day". The original source of the phrase is credited to the poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (more widely known as Horace). However, many less scholarly people (myself included) picked up the phrase from the character John Keating, played by Robin Williams, [...]
A recent SEI Wealth Network survey found that 80% of those polled planned to transfer wealth directly to family members, yet only 46% actually had a plan in place to do so (read the article). While this article did not mention him directly, I don't think "Uncle Sam" was the intended family member in any of these wealth transfer [...]
A federal appeals court affirmed a popular gift tax strategy that is available for taxpayers to help lessen the blow when IRS does not accept valuation discounts on gifts. This technique is intended to discourage the IRS from challenging valuation discounts. By making gifts default to charity if the valuation discounts are adjusted by the IRS, it effectively takes those [...]