New State Laws Complicate Naming Relatives as Trustees – There are plenty of very good reasons to set up trusts, both while you are alive and for after you have passed on.  This article has some good tips on selecting a trustee, such as deciding between using a relative or a professional service, such as a bank, or a combination of those.  I’ve worked with clients using dozens of variations of these, each with their own peculiarities and no universal one size fits all best way to set things up.  

Don’t count the tax-cut out yet – Larry Kudlow has been the most consistently optimistic about the possibility of seeing this tax cut make it through of anyone I can think of.

Tax Cut Push Continues in Key Senators’ States, but Impact May Be Small – Club For Growth campaign to shame the RINO Senators to support the Bush tax plan

Lawmakers Weigh Dividend Tax Cut Compromise

Simpler Tax Cut Is Floated – House Leaders Offer Uniform Rate on Dividends, Capital Gains

This is one way to scuttle the tax bill; throw in completely new ideas to muddy the water even more than it already is.

Pointing the Finger

According to IRS, their recent program for people to avoid prosecution by voluntarily admitting their participation in schemes to hide money offshore has paid off well in terms of money and in names of the people promoting these scams.  More than 1,200 people took advantage of this opportunity to come clean.  A partial analysis of some of the cases has already identified more than $50 million in uncollected taxes and 80 new offshore promoters.  As I have always said, shutting down the promoters of illegal tax evasion scams is a much more effective approach for IRS enforcement than going after their followers on a one by one basis.

KMK

Frist to push bigger tax cut – It will be an uphill battle to overcome the perception that this is nothing more than a tax giveaway for the evil rich, such as in this editorial from the Atlanta Urinal-Constipation, where anyone who wants any lower taxes is by definition greedy and selfish.