MAKE YOUR ESTATE TAX PROBLEM MY ESTATE TAX PROBLEM
The Nine Critical Problems (and Their Solutions) You Must Solve to Complete Your Estate Plan

When a concerned taxpayer calls my office with an estate tax problem, their problem becomes our problem… And we solve it.
Some callers are frozen with fear as to how the estate tax will devastate their wealth, which took them a lifetime to accumulate. Some just have a question or two. Most interesting, almost all callers think their problems are unique. But the fact is… we have faced and …

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.
Unfortunately, the goal of the typical estate planner is to reduce estate taxes. Our goal is always the same: eliminate the robber-like estate tax.
There are three types of readers of this column that call me for help: The reader who (1) has an estate plan but needs a second opinion, (2) has no plan, or (3) has …

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 consultation (usually for transfer/succession/estate planning), we find the business real estate in a separate C corporation (sometimes an S corporation) and leased to the operating corporation. Often, the real estate is owned by the operating corporation. Wrong! All are wrong. Actually a tax disaster waiting to happen. Why?
Someday, when you try …

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 business transfer.” The ruling shows you how to take advantage of some favorable tax law while avoiding pitfalls. Good stuff! There is a bit of a problem to using the technique: You see, you must drop dead before your family can enjoy the benefits of Letter Ruling 9116031.
But wait, the …

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 their kids. Yes, that’s where the action is. And it’s easy – because there is only one decision maker, typically Dad – compared to the subject matter of this article, where there is more than one decision maker.
What’s the subject of this article?…. Business succession involving two or more brothers …