Tax Burden Distribution Debate

Tax-Paying Parents’ Wish List

Party Of the Evil Rich

Much has been said about the liberal bias permeating he mainstream media. Bias is actually too mild a term. True bias would entail presenting the actual news with a liberal slant. What the media have been doing is outright fraud; lying about the facts. There are so many examples.

The current campaign by the liberals and their sycophantic mainstream press lackeys to portray the media as biased in favor of conservatives is typical of their game plan. They want everyone to believe that Fox News, which does have a slightly conservative slant, is more influential than all of the other networks combined, which are all one-sided propaganda arms for the liberals and the Democrat Party. It’s great that we finally have an alternative to the left wing ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS. However, it’s ludicrous to say that Fox News, which is only available via cable and satellite, can reach any more than a tiny fraction of the audience that receives the broadcast networks.

Another media fabrication that has long bugged me is their portrayal of George W. Bush as a dunce and Al Gore as a genius. The truth is 180 degrees apart. I have long been a keen student of intelligence (some call me an intellectual snob) and Gore, who barely squeaked through college and has less personality than the Disney animatronic figures, is an absolute moron. Bush, who earned an MBA degree, while frequently mangling words, is one of the smartest presidents we have had.

The false media template that triggered this rant has to do with how they portray the two major political parties. For generations, they have claimed that the Republicans are all a bunch of evil rich country club fat cats, while the Democrats are all a bunch of poor working stiffs. That’s why I found this piece on donors to the parties very interesting. It seems that the big million dollar donations are predominately from Democrats, while the bulk of GOP donations are small amounts. It makes sense when you consider how most Hollywood stars are supporters of the leftist Party of the JackAss.

There is a similar disconnect between the media template and the truth in regard to the two parties’ stance on racial matters; but that has already been beaten to death with the hysteria over Trent Lott.

KMK

I guess I’m not the only one who thinks the Star Registry is the stupidest idea out there.

Choosing A Corporate Name

A big mistakes people make when setting up a new corporation is simply adding an Inc., Ltd., or Corp after their name when choosing a name for the new corporation.

Besides the very lucrative tax savings opportunities available in a corporation, it can increase your privacy and lessen the potential for frivolous lawsuits.

It is no secret that people will sue anyone for anything if they think they can get some money out of it. Ambulance chasing attorneys, when deciding whether or not to take on a case don’t care one iota whether or not the case is justified. What they are concerned with is how deep your pockets are. They will do a search to see what assets you own. If your name is the same as your corporation’s, it will be impossible to prevent the vultures from identifying everything owned by you personally and through the corp. If the names are different, there is less likelihood that a search will link ownership of assets. If there doesn’t appear to be a lot of attachable assets, the normal ambulance chaser will pass on accepting the case.

The best corporate names are those that give away no hint of who owns them. There is no requirement that the name of a corporation identify the owner or even what it does. I’m a big fan of using as generic and vague a name as possible, such as initials or a made up name. Several clients have fabricated great corporate names from parts of their kids’ or grandkids’ names.

Besides protecting against nuisance lawsuits, using a vague corporate name allows a level of privacy that would not otherwise be available. Not everyone wants all of their transactions published in the paper for the whole world to see.

KMK

SUVs Are Not Evil

I couldn’t agree more with this commentary that all the nosy busy-bodies who want to ban SUVs and condemn those who choose to own them should just shut the hell up and mind their own business. It’s the typical liberal attitude of telling everyone else how to run their lives, while exempting themselves.

KMK

Living Trusts

I don’t have time at the moment to describe all of the details of how living trusts work. Here is a good summary of the details.

From what I have seen over years, there are still a lot of misconceptions and errors with how living trusts are used in real life and death.

While most of the publicity and consternation is over the Estate (aka Death or Inheritance) tax, the truth is that most people don’t have estates large enough to be paying any of that tax. What should be more of a concern are probate fees. While estate taxes are payable on the net estate after deducting liabilities, charitable bequests and final funeral, medical, legal and tax preparation costs, probate fees are based on the gross estate values. It is possible that the probate fees are more than the net assets in the estate, requiring the heirs to pay in before the estate can be finalized. For example, an estate with assets of two million dollars and liabilities and other qualified deductions of two million would have a net estate of zero and thus no tax. The probate fees would be around $100,000 depending on the state or states in which the assets reside.

A growing number of people are using revocable living trusts in order to avoid probate. However, there is still a lot of confusion as to how they work. Many people confuse living trusts and living wills, when they are in fact two very different things. A living will is to document your wishes if you become incapacitated, such as a DNR (do not resuscitate) authorizing someone to “pull the plug” on you.

Another common misconception is that assets in a living trust are exempt from estate taxes. A living trust, because it is a revocable trust, has no effect on estate taxes or any other taxes available to individuals, such as the tax free residence sale. An irrevocable trust is a completely different entity that files tax returns and will affect estate taxes.

Another problem that often occurs is that people have set up a living trust, often with one of those cheap do it yourself kits, and then never got around to titling their assets in the name of the trust. I have seen several cases where the trust ended up doing absolutely no good for this very reason. While I still believe in setting up corporations by oneself, that is not the case for setting up a living trust. A good estate attorney will obviously take care of the asset titling at the time of the trust’s establishment, and prepare a pour-over will to cover assets obtained later on that aren’t in the trust’s name. The executor of the estate needs to be careful about titled ownership of assets as s/he is compiling the inventory and determining which assets can be transferred immediately to the heirs and which ones must go through the long and expensive probate process.

It looks like Scott Adams may be doing some estate planning.



KMK

Possible Tax Cut Scenarios