The United States has a gift tax: if you give something to someone, you have to pay the U.S. government for the privilege. Yes there are a ton of exceptions and weird rules. This is tax law after all. But you’d be surprised who gets tangled up in the gift tax law. Consider this one. [...]

This is a little bit of inside baseball for the pointy-headed trust aficionados among you. We draft tons of trusts. Domestic trusts. Foreign trusts. Revocable and irrevocable. There is plenty of stuff in a trust that is non-obvious, both in the trust language and the tax implications of what you do after the trust is [...]

The Statute of Limitations is your friend. The Statute of Limitations is tax lawyer insider jargon for “The IRS has X years to chase you and if they don’t catch you during that time you’re safe forever.” The normal rule is that in order to get this protection you have to file a tax return. [...]

Today I gave an all-day course on U.S. taxation of nonresident investors in U.S. real estate. (Link is to the next time I’m giving this course — in San Jose on January 6, 2009). The course was sponsored by the Cal CPA Education Foundation. It was at the Sheraton in Anaheim, hard by Disneyland. No, [...]

I spoke to the Pasadena Discussion Group of the California Society of CPAs on Halloween. Topic: International Estate and Gift Tax Planning. Email me if you want a copy of the handout.