This debate is as old as “guns vs. butter” but it has intensified in the past decade as interest yields have collapsed. As we “head to the Fed” meeting next month a 10 year treasury note gets you 2.06% and we are told that a rate cut is on the way. There was a time
Alimony
Countdown for Tax Reform: How It May Affect You
By Mark Ashton on
Just before Christmas last year, Congress passed and the President signed a major tax reform package that contained a surprising wrinkle. It abandoned a decades long provision that permitted payors of alimony or spousal support to deduct their payments from income and required recipients to report the payments and pay tax on them.
The effective…
A DECADE LONG ALIMONY SLEIGH RIDE
By Mark Ashton on
A couple weeks ago this writer was asked to sit on a panel discussing the future of family law almost forty years after the no-fault and equitable distribution schemes were adopted and the federal government began promoting guideline based child support. One of the concerns I expressed to the Family Law Section of the state…
YOUR 1040 JUST TURNED INTO A POST CARD; BUT TAXPAYERS BEWARE
By Mark Ashton on
Congress has been crowing about tax simplification for years. They had a one-page income tax return in 1913 when the first modern return was published by the IRS. But even then, a one-page return was a written “sleight of hand” as the first line stated Income and the second said only “Deductions” before calling the…
ALIMONY ABOUT TO EXPERIENCE AN UNTIMELY DEATH
By Mark Ashton on
As this is written, the House and Senate this week are scheduled to vote upon a conference report of both houses of Congress which will “reform” tax law in a major way for the first time since the Reagan administration. In order to secure passage, Congress needed to find some revenue enhancements to offset the…
Alimony Ambiguity Reach Stage “Critical”
By Mark Ashton on
We have still not seen a copy of the Senate bill although PBS Newshour reports that the final version adopted by the Senate was not circulated in the Senate until late Friday evening and about 5 hours before the vote. However, it appears that the Senate bill does not change existing alimony rules. As noted…
Big Divorce Change: First Draft of House Tax Reform Bill
By Mark Ashton on
Any American with a pulse knows that 2017 was to be the first overhaul of U.S. Tax Law since 1986. Until this week, what was circulating through Washington was an 18 page executive summary. That changed yesterday when the House Republican Tax Policy Committee circulated a draft bill that specified exactly what changes were being…
WHEN IS AN ALIMONY MODIFICATION AN AGREEMENT AND WHEN IS IT NOT.
By Mark Ashton on
On October 5th of this year, the Superior Court disposed of an alimony modification request that was decided by the trial court in October, 2014. The facts and the ruling present a tale of how divorce practitioners need to pay heed to language when modifying an order of alimony.
Egan v. Egan, 2015 Pa. Super.…
WHOSE KID ARE YOU ANYWAY; DEDUCTIONS/HEADS OF HOUSEHOLD/DAY CARE & CHILD CREDITS
By Mark Ashton on
Yes, it is tax time once again and the struggles over who got Christmas morning in December now give way to “who gets the deductions and credits” associated with the minor child. Here is the primer which is offered subject to the advice of income tax preparers.
In ancient times, which is to say, before…
THE FORGOTTEN TAX DEDUCTIONS
By Mark Ashton on
The general rule is that personal expenses are almost never deductible by taxpayers on Schedule “A” (Itemized Deductions) of their personal returns. But all rules have exceptions and almost everyone is familiar with the deductions available for medical and dental expenses. These are great deductions but with this hitch. You only get to deduct the…