My mother-in-law, Margret, is in a nursing home. She knows who she is, but not much more than that. My wife does her taxes every year. Read more >>
June 6, 2014
Proving A Negative: IRS Needs Evidence of Taxpayer’s Being Paid
Blog
Misleading Radio Ads Promising Huge Tax Debt Reduction
I heard a radio ad about solving IRS problems. “It’s a fact that when you owe $10,000 or more, the IRS can take your car, your house . . . even your freedom.” Read more >>
June 6, 2014
Should Legal Losers Pay the Winners’ Attorney Fees?
My clients were nurses at a local hospital. They’re immigrants and English isn’t their first language. They worked hard and bought a house. One day, Read more >>
October 28, 2013
Bankruptcy Didn’t Make Sense: Nothing Left to Lose & Loving It
I had a bankruptcy client a few years ago. He owned two office buildings with mortgages totaling more than the buildings’ values. They were going to be foreclosed, triggering personal guarantees, and the client would owe millions of dollars to the lender. If he somehow got out of the personal guarantees, he would owe hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax on the imputed income from canceling his debt. Read more »
September 12, 2013
Tea Party Isn’t A “Social Welfare Organization,” So No Tax-Free Status
A few months ago, the US saw the political theater of Congress outraged at the IRS’s alleged targeting of Tea Party political organizations for scrutiny on whether they qualified for tax-exempt status. It looked like the IRS was politically-biased against conservative causes. Read more »
September 7, 2013
The “Audit” That Isn’t An Audit
IRS has sent out tens of thousands of letters to small businesses asking them to explain the difference between the businesses’ receipts reported on the tax returns and reported by third parties. Read more >>
August 21, 2013
Asset Protection & Pre-Bankruptcy Planning
A well-to-do friend called me for some planning. He invited me to his beautiful, five-bedroom home in the hills above Westlake Village. We sat at poolside as he described his predicament. Read more >>
June 20, 2013
Arsonist Can Discharge Fire Fighting Costs in Bankruptcy
Living in semi-arid California, I’ve gotten used to seeing large columns of smoke on hot, windy days. Most recently, I could see the Springs Fire burning between Camarillo and Malibu from a distance, Fortunately, it did little damage Read more >>
May 14, 2013
Bankruptcy, Humility & Happiness
I have a bankruptcy client who had been a high-earning executive with an ad agency. But he lost his job, savings and even retirement nest egg in the real estate crash. He now lives in a rental in the Valley Read more >>
April 24, 2013
How I Help Doctors Get Financially Well
It used to be that a medical degree was a ticket to a relatively secure life: in exchange for spending years achieving at school and amassing formidable learning, and just showing up at your practice for 50 or more hours a week Read more >>
April 19, 2013