As I started this, it occurred to me that I had been to this topic before. Last April 19 I reported on a story published by PBS about spouses who accumulate debt in secret and then want to “share” the debt when the marriage collapses. The February 2020 issue of The Magazine of the American
Taxes
TAX REFORM + 2: WHAT DOES IT MEAN & WHERE DOES THE AVERAGE JOE STAND?
By Mark Ashton on
Posted in Taxes
Since the most recent tax reform was adopted in December 2017, this writer has been wondering what it really meant to average people. My averages will be a bit on the high side, but when I ran across a 1995 tax table I decided to try running some tests. Here are the results and I…
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…
The Tail that May Not End
By Mark Ashton on
Every year, both in April and in October, divorce lawyers face a dilemma. While April is the official tax deadline, just about everyone knows that “complex” returns are almost never complete when spring rolls around and many filers defer to October. But, when couples split they often ask for the first time whether they should…
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…
TAX REFORM IS GOING TO YIELD SOME REAL ESTATE “BLUES”
By Mark Ashton on
Posted in Taxes
Lots of electronic ink has been spilled this week on winners and losers coming out of the Tax Reform Act passed on December 20. Much of this is fairly speculative but some is simply common sense.
If you are a homeowner, take a look at last year’s bill for real estate taxes, then calculate what…
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…
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…
Same Sex Common Law Marriage Established by Superior Court
By Aaron Weems on
Posted in Same Sex Marriage, Taxes
Since the striking down of the Defense of Marriage Act by the United States Supreme Court, many state courts have been trying to fill in the legal vacuum created between the legality of same-sex marriage and the lack of codified law through legislation.
Though many Courts of Common Pleas have taken on issues, it really…
Reverse Mortgage Redux
By Mark Ashton on
This is not a money management blog but what we increasingly find is that many divorce clients simply “trusted” that their resources would be sufficient to carry them through retirement. The great awakening comes when they discover they are now splitting what looked like a comfortable retirement and that their ability to make up for…