18
Jan 2020
0
(This is Blog Post #698)...
Fraud suspicions are hard enough to investigate if you’re a business owner and call the shots. But what if you’re a limited partner (LP) in a business where a general partner (GP) is possibly engaged in mismanagement, self-dealing or fraud? With little control over the company, limited partners that suspect general partners of fraud face several challenges. The problem In a limited partnership, one or more general partners (GPs) manage the business while limited partners (LPs) contribute capital and share in the profits. LPs don’t run or manage the business. In fact, in most states, if they become involved in management decisions they can lose their LP status. Other states allow minor exceptions to this rule by, for example, allowing an LP to vote on issues that...
If you have minor children, arguably the most important estate planning decision you need to make is choosing a guardian for them should the unthinkable occur. If you haven’t yet made this decision, formalize your choice as soon as possible. When it comes to choosing the best candidate for a guardian for your child, you probably already have a short list consisting of members of your immediate family. This is an excellent start, but don’t forget about extended family members and trusted friends. Things to consider when choosing a guardian for your child There are many issues you’ll need to consider in making your decision. Perhaps the most important issue is whether you and your guardian choice share similar values, such as parenting philosophy, religious and moral beliefs,...
12
Jan 2020
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) made only one change to the federal gift and estate tax regime, but it was a big one. It more than doubled the combined gift and estate tax exemption, as well as the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption. This change is only temporary, however. Unless Congress takes further action, the exemptions will return to their inflation-adjusted 2017 levels starting in 2026. What does this mean for your estate plan? If your estate is well within the 2019 exemption amount of $11.40 million ($11.58 million for 2020), the higher exemption won’t have a big impact on your estate planning strategies. But if your estate is in the $6 million to $11 million range, it’s important to build some flexibility into...
(This is Blog Post #689) ...
If your company faces the need to “remediate” or clean up environmental contamination, the money you spend can be deductible on your tax return as ordinary and necessary business expenses. There are however "timing difference" types of tax implications of environmental cleanup. You want to claim the maximum immediate income tax benefits possible for the expenses you incur but that may not always be possible. These expenses may include the actual cleanup costs, as well as expenses for environmental studies, surveys and investigations, fees for consulting and environmental engineering, legal and professional fees, environmental “audit” and monitoring costs, and other expenses. Current deductions vs. capitalized costs Unfortunately, every type of environmental cleanup expense cannot be currently deducted. Some cleanup costs must be capitalized. But, generally, cleanup costs are...
By temporarily doubling the gift and estate tax exemption, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) opened a window of opportunity for affluent families to transfer assets tax-free. To take advantage of the higher exemption amount, many families that own businesses or other assets worth more than the pre-TCJA exemption amount are planning substantial gifts to their children before 2026. Traditionally, parents use trust-based gifting strategies to transfer assets to their children. Even though these strategies offer significant tax-planning benefits, they also have a major drawback: They require you to relinquish much of your control over the assets, including the right to direct the ultimate disposition of the trust assets. One strategy for avoiding this drawback is to use beneficiary defective inheritors trusts (BDIT). It’s better to...
29
Dec 2019
If you devote all your business’s security resources to fending off hackers and other cybercriminals, you may be unlocking the door, literally, to more basic types of theft. “Creepers” are criminals who gain access to offices or other physical facilities via unlocked doors and social engineering tactics. Once in, they steal proprietary information, inventory, computers and personal property, or gather information that makes it easier to hack your network. As such, creepers are a threat to your business. Creepers in action A major energy company’s Houston office was infiltrated by a creeper who’s believed to have stolen sensitive information, possibly to sell to a rival company or foreign government. Surveillance footage released by the FBI shows a man walking through an unlocked door in the middle of...