Industrial Strength Succession Planning'
RAISE YOUR HAND if you are the owner (or part owner) of a successful family business and someday you want your kids to step into your shoes. Let's be...
Industrial Strength Succession Planning'
RAISE YOUR HAND if you are the owner (or part owner) of a successful family business and someday you want your kids to step into your shoes. Let's be...
The best retirement plan I have ever seen
MENTION RETIREMENT to any group no matter how young or old and the knee-jerk reaction is almost always the same: Stuff as much as you can into a qualified...
Saving widow from an estate planning misstep
TRY THIS REAL-LIFE story of a tax disaster. Joe died, survived by his wife Mary, four grown kids (one Sam managed Joe's family business, Success Co.)...
The best way to attract and keep great people
Our Typical Consulting assignment is to put together a wealth transfer plan for a successful business owner. Invariably, the client brings up two critical...
Did your lawyer (inadvertently) rip you off?
JOE, A 63-YEAR-OLD reader of this column from Iowa, almost cried when talking to me on the phone. "I still want to kick myself for thinking my estate...
Retirement plan rescue' saves a ton of taxes
RAISE YOUR HAND if you have a "substantial amount" in a qualified retirement plan such as an IRA, 401(k), profit-sharing plan or the like. For our purposes,...
TIPs column so popular it hit No. 1 on Google
BY IRVING L. BLACKMAN TAX ACCOUNTANT THE PURPOSE OF this monthly column always has been and still is simple: to show you, my readers, how to save taxes...
Turn insurance mistakes into tax-free wealth
IT'S FRUSTRATING. Year after year our office is asked to give a second opinion on the completed estate plans of owners of family businesses. It is rare...
Think fast, what's your business worth?
GIVE THE RIGHT answers and you can win big bucks on many TV game shows. Typically, the host only allows about 15 seconds for the contestant to give the...
Get real estate out of your corporation tax free
DO YOU HAVE real estate in your corporation? If so, raise your hand and then keep reading. About once a month, we get a call at the office asking a question...
Big valuation victories for the good guys
FIRST, A SIMPLE question: How much would you pay for property worth $ 100,000, if you must spend $30,000 to fix it ( commissions, special taxes or whatever)...
When are you 'substantially complete'?
SUBSTANTIAL COMPLETION is a term of art in construction. Nowhere else do these two words have special legal and financial significance. The legal significance...
Dealing with retained earnings and cash
DO YOU HAVE a large amount of retained earnings and excess cash in your corporation, but the double taxing power of the law has your cash locked in the...
Dealing with retained earnings and cash
DO YOU HAVE a large amount of retained earnings and excess cash in your corporation, but the double taxing power of the law has your cash locked in the...
How to transfer business to sons, save estate
BY IRVING L. BLACKMAN TAX ACCOUNTANT THE FACTS, PROBLEMS and solutions of this month's column are so typical of the readers who call me for help that...
We come to the rescue of distressed taxpayer
JOE, A 79-YEAR-OLD widower, is feeling economic and tax pain. Don't feel sorry for Joe, he's generally a healthy and happy guy. Still goes to work every...
How you can avoid impact of the estate tax
WHEN IT COMES to the wealth-robbing estate tax, almost every reader of this column who calls me asks this or a similar question, "Irv, can you help me...
How to make 16.28% annually without risk
BEING A TAX GUY, the most common questions I get from owners of privately held businesses are about estate planning transferring their business and wealth...
Value your business to protect your family
DO YOU KNOW how to make a grown man cry? Tell him his business has been destroyed by fire, flood or God. Yes, a tragedy. Bad stuff. But most likely, the...
The best way to attract and keep great people
MOST OF MY consulting time is spent putting together wealth transfer plans for successful business owners. Invariably, about half my clients bring up...
A lousy asset or money-making machine?
Are you Convinced that qualified retirement plans such as pension plans, profitsharing plans, IRAs and 401(k) plans are great? Good for everyone? If so,...
Your conservative portfolio is at risk
IT'S AMAZING HOW often the voice at the other end of the phone says something like, "Irv, I'm very conservative." Then they prove it. How? By telling...
Little known strategies to save your tax dollars
STRATEGY NO. 1. Are you an S corporation? Be careful. The IRS is on the warpath. Why? Many S corporation owners take small or sometimes zero salaries...
70+? Stop paying life insurance premiums
BY IRVING L. BLACKMAN TAX ACCOUNTANT ONE THING IS certain about practicing tax law. Nobody knows it all. What's the result? Specialization. A practitioner...
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