The year has gone by so quickly! Now we are in the middle of the holidays and the end of 2017 is just a couple of weeks away. For me and my family, this is the Christmas season during which we celebrate the birth of Jesus. If you too are celebrating Christmas, we wish you…
Author: James V. Roberts
Thank You, Veterans
At 7:55 AM (11:55 AM Dallas time), on December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the US at Pearl Harbor. Over the next few years, an epic struggle ensued, and our freedoms here were protected by the men and women of America’s armed forces. Fewer than ten percent of those who served then are still with…
Election to Board of Governors of the Dallas Estate Planning Council
Glast, Phillips & Murray, PC is pleased to announce that James V. “Jim” Roberts has been elected to a two-year term on the Board of Governors of the Dallas Estate Planning Council 2016-2018 Jim is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and has been honored by…
Deducting Business Expenses – Factors to Consider
Getting the IRS to approve your business deductions is not always easy and sometimes you have to take them to court. An interesting case was decided by the US Tax Court and the opinion released on April 20, 2016 in Amy Ndiaye Delia v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, T.C. Memo 2016-17. It’s a fun case…
Woelbing Settled
Adam Wiensch, one of the attorneys representing the taxpayer in the Woelbing case, reported that the IRS has settled. In that case, Mr. and Mrs. Woelbing had created an insurance trust which held policies with a cash value of $1.6 million. The Woelbings sold $59 million of stock in Carma Laboratories (Carmex lip balm, etc.)…
Deadline Extended AGAIN for Basis Reporting
Once again, the Treasury and the IRS have delayed the filing deadline for Form 8971 now required under 26 USC 6035 (along with 26 USC 1014(f)), new provisions enacted under the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015. Those new provisions require “basis consistency” between what is reported on a decedent’s…
Deadline Extended for Basis Reporting
Under the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, signed into law on July 31, 2015, Congress enacted new provisions requiring “basis consistency” between what is reported on a decedent’s federal estate tax return and what the beneficiaries of the estate can use as their cost basis for assets inherited from…
Radical LLC and Partnership Changes
On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. That statute makes significant changes governing federal tax audits of entities that are treated as partnerships for US federal income tax law. In other words, the statute affects all LLCs and partnerships. Some LLCs are disregarded entities, not taxed as…
Highway Funding Bill
Income Tax Basis Effective 8-1-2015 On July 30, 2015, I issued a Special Alert regarding “basis consistency provisions” which were buried in the Highway Funding Bill. At that time, the House of Representatives was considering the bill. They passed it and the Senate took it up in short order, passed it, and sent it to…
Special Alert – Basis Consistency Provision Passes House
The US House of Representatives has passed the Highway Funding Bill, H.R. 3038. Buried in the text of the Bill is a “basis consistency provision.” Basically, that means a law that would require that a beneficiary who receives assets from a decedent must use the value the decedent’s executor puts on the federal estate tax…