Real Estate Overassessment – Abatement Procedure

Posted on July 16, 2015

If you believe that your municipality (city or town) has overassessed your home and as a result you are paying too much in real estate taxes, there are specific steps that are required to be followed to challenge that assessment. Failure to follow these procedures could result in the denial of your...

U.S. Estate Tax Law — The Wait is Over (Maybe)

Posted on March 7, 2013

At long last, in its first action to avoid the Fiscal Cliff, Congress has enacted a new tax act (The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012). From a US (but not Massachusetts) gift tax and estate tax perspective the Bush-era tax cuts were made permanent. The most important of...

New Taxes for 2013

Posted on January 5, 2013

The package of US health care reform laws imposes new taxes starting in 2013. These are not part of the so-called “fiscal cliff”. A solution to the “fiscal cliff” will probably not affect the taxes discussed in this article. Part 1 – 3.8% Surtax On Certain Amounts and Kinds...

New Mass – Israel Partnership- Good Business for Massachusetts

Posted on July 28, 2011

Massachusetts Governor D Patrick is to be congratulated for his continued efforts to promote business relationships between Massachusetts and the State of Israel. This June, Massachusetts and Israel launched a new partnership designed to finance joint R&D projects in the life sciences, clean energy and technology industries. Please see, Massachusetts and Israel Unveil...

When can a Donor Rely upon the Charity’s Statement that Donations are Tax Deductible?

Posted on July 9, 2011

Donations to many tax exempt organizations (for example, charities to help the poor, schools, hospitals, museums, and youth organizations) are usually thought of as being deductible on the donor’s US income tax return. (If the taxpayer is an individual or married couple, the taxpayer must itemize deductions in order to claim...

IRS Not to Pursue Airline Passengers for Retroactive Ticket Taxes

Posted on July 4, 2011

Due to retroactive tax legislation, airline passengers who purchased tickets between July 23rd through and including August 7th may not have been charged for certain Federal ticket taxes that the airlines should have charged. On a per passenger basis, the taxes (if properly charged) would have been: 7.5%...

Foreign Account Reporting Redux

Posted on March 23, 2011

The US Treasury requires certain individuals and entities to report the existence of certain foreign financial accounts and entities (the “foreign reporting rules”). Since the foreign reporting rules became an area of focus for Treasury, there has been uncertainty regarding specifically who is obligated to file. Given that the penalties for non-compliance...

2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative – There’s a New (FBAR) Game in Town

Posted on March 9, 2011

CAUTION: This Update is only a superficial summary and may not be relied upon for guidance as to any particular, real life situation. We have included links to information on the IRS web site about the 2011 IRS “Voluntary Disclosure” program discussed in this Update. Nevertheless, we think it is imperative to seek...

Newly Enacted Federal Tax (and Unemployment) Statue

Posted on March 1, 2011

Dear clients and friends:
I wanted to provide you with a brief review of the recently-enacted federal tax law – the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010”. Whether this law is aptly-named is yet to be seen! I’ve not tried here to review all the...

2010 Suspension of U.S. Estate and Generation Skipping Transfer Taxes

Posted on February 17, 2011

As is well known from the news media, the U.S. estate tax has been suspended for deaths occurring in calendar year 2010 – but it is also currently scheduled to again be effective for deaths occurring after calendar year 2010, this time with an “exemption” that is equivalent to $1,000,000 of assets...