I’ve always wanted to climb Mt Whitney and to backpack the John Muir Trail. So, I took a few weeks off just recently to regroup mentally and physically, and did both. The JMT is 220 miles of arguably the prettiest scenery in the United States, with high mountain lakes and pristine meadows amid towering [...]
By Courtney Rozen Initial estimates aren’t promising: The American Enterprise Institute projected June 18 that the law would reduce charitable giving by $17.2 billion this year, according to a static analysis. But in the six months since Republicans passed the 2017 tax act (Pub. L. No. 115-97), much of the impact is yet to [...]
The US Supreme Court finally ruled on the sales tax case from South Dakota. The case as you may recall was a direct challenge to the status quo that exempted sellers from having to collect sales taxes from buyers in states where the seller had no physical presence. The old regime has been a great boon to internet commerce [...]
One of the (presumably) unintended consequences of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018 (TCJA) is the impact that it will have on charitable giving. There are plenty of people who donate money and property to various nonprofit groups for purely philanthropic reasons. However, when there is an institutional subsidy in the form [...]
As most of you are no doubt aware, there is much concern by states over lost revenue from internet purchases where an out of state seller does not collect sales tax on sales to customers in a state that imposes a sales tax. Estimates for uncollected sales taxes are as high as in the [...]
Today is tax filing day, and no doubt some of you wonder how you rank with the rest of the country in the big scheme of who is paying income taxes. The Tax Foundation has released its study of 2015 income taxes (https://files.taxfoundation.org/20180117125609/Tax-Foundation-FF570.pdf) and the information is entertaining if nothing else. For example, if [...]
We are racing towards the tax season finish line like the US Bobsled team in China (hopefully a bit faster), and now that we have seen a large volume of tax returns it is interesting to see what our initial projections are for who is most affected by the 2018 Tax Act. As a [...]
Dear Friends and Subscribers In the last couple days you may have received three blog posts from me, one titled Yes, You Will Die, one titled Who Slid This In?, and one titled Your Tax Dollars at Work. The first one was intentional and a must read (if I do say so myself) for [...]
As the saying goes, none of us get out of this world alive. And as much as we prefer to ignore this basic fact of life, we really should plan ahead for it. As part of the trust and estate work we do in our firm we see a lot of elderly clients and [...]
Another tidbit buried in the new tax law is an excise tax on beer, effective 1/1/2018. Now before you go all Boston Tea Party on this, read further. Under the new law, there is to be an excise tax on beer at the rate of $16 per barrel. This applies to domestic and imported [...]
