Take-Away: A recent Tax Court decision was won by the taxpayer who surprisingly argued that she did not own an IRA, consequently she could neither be taxed on distributions nor assessed a 10% penalty. Facts: The owner used her IRA to make a $40,000 loan to her father in 2005, in exchange for a promissory […]

Take-Away: The details of IRC 199A are now coming a bit more into focus, but it is still an extremely confusing income tax deduction to understand or calculate. It is even more challenging to provide guidance on the deduction for individuals who are owners of multiple businesses. Background: With the reduction in income tax rates […]

Take-Away: We can expect to spend a lot of time during the balance of 2018 counselling clients on the new IRC 199A pass-through business deduction, which permits some, but not all, taxpayers to deduct up to 20% of their qualified business income. It is possible (no guarantee) that a basic ‘rule-of-thumb’ can be used to […]

Take-Away: What follows is a short update on reported adopted and pending legislation from a few weeks ago. Principal Residence Exemption During Convalescence:  This Act [PA 133 of 2018] amends the General Property Act [MCL 211.7cc] to remove a requirement that a residence must be unoccupied in order for an individual who resides in a […]

Take-Away: The amounts that an heir or surviving spouse may claim under the Michigan Estates and Protected Individuals Code increase each year to reflect cost of living adjustments. Some of those increased amounts for 2018 are described below. Reviewing intestate shares, elective rights, and probate court allowances is often a helpful reminder that it is […]

Take-Away: The deductibility of an  investment advisory fee is impacted by the 2017 Tax Cut Act, not in a good way. Background: As a gross generalization, investment advisory expenses, along with tax preparation and other professional fees are/were treated as miscellaneous itemized deductions. Prior to 2018 a taxpayer’s miscellaneous itemized deductions were allowed but only […]

Take-Away: The 2017 Tax Cut Act made positive changes to Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) plans, which are designed to help disabled individuals and their families pay for qualified disability expenses on a tax-favored basis. Background: ABLE accounts were originally effective beginning in 2015. If correctly established, the earnings in an ABLE account are […]

Take-Away: With Michigan’s adoption of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, there is still the need for express authority given to the fiduciary in a Will, Trust, or Durable Power of Attorney to grant access the contents of the individual’s digital asset. Giving authority to the fiduciary to ‘deal with’ or ‘handle’ […]

Take-Away: There is much discussion these days is over the planning technique of directing an IRA to be paid to a trust on the death of the IRA owner. The benefit of this strategy is to shelter the IRA from creditor claims against the individual beneficiary, which would not be protected if the IRA was […]

Take-Away: With some of the changes resulting from the 2017 Tax Act, there could be more use of limited liability companies (LLC) in estate plans. One change is that the federal alternative minimum tax is repealed for C corporations, which may cause some businesses to consider incorporation. With many taking a second look at incorporation, […]