The IRS Tax Exempt/Governmental Entities (TE/GE) Joint Council met on February 26, 2016.
Clients often ask: How do I make the best use of my gifts to charity?
There is increasing evidence to support the belief that foreign bank account and investment holders who have not reported information regarding these accounts to the Treasury Department may soon pay very dearly for their failure to comply with its rules.
Maine’s lawmakers finally agreed to follow recent federal tax law changes, and their delay no longer will continue to hold up the filing of some taxpayers’ 2015 state income tax returns.
Massachusetts has once again offered delinquent taxpayers some relief, through a tax amnesty program that will run from April 1, 2016 through May 31, 2016. Unlike the recent targeted tax amnesty programs the state has administered in recent years, this program is available to most Massachusetts taxpayers, both individuals and businesses, for various types of taxes.
Ah… such cheery topics! Please know, though, that significant tax planning opportunities can exist in the structure of a divorce. Our experience is that couples who do not consider tax implications when drafting the documents often find out later that a different approach might have saved taxes.
If you transfer money or property to someone as a gift, you may have to report it on a gift tax return. Although the unified gift and estate tax exemption amount has increased significantly in recent years – $5.43 million for 2015 and $5.45 million for 2016 – some gifts still result in a gift tax liability. For others, it’s simply a matter of accurately reporting the transfer on a timely filed gift tax return.