Categorized | Tax Talk

Tax Talk this Valentine’s Day we went into great detail on what constitutes Community Property and how to make sure your Kids get what you want them to have after you pass away. Listen to the show or read the transcript below.

Patrick: And welcome to Tax Talk. The more you know, the more you get to keep. Welcome to our Valentine’s Day edition. We are so thankful that you’re here and one of the things that we want to get right into is community property.
So, I know that’s going to be a big topic today. I also know there are several upcoming deadlines that you need to be mindful of.
Jeff: Definitely.
Patrick: And our hosts, or guests, today, hosts for the show, of course, Jeff Pickering; obviously, CPA, Master’s in Taxation and then, Rex Hogue of Bolinger and Hogue, an attorney in the North Texas area; so thankful that you’re here.
And one of the things we want to give out right away also is the phone numbers to call in to ask these two guys questions about anything taxes. It’s 214-787-1570, or 800-583-1570 or #KLIF on your Sprint phone. With that, Jeff, why don’t we talk a little bit about the deadlines?
Jeff: Right. We have some deadlines coming up. Our deadlines are the 28th of February. That’s the deadline to get your W2s, copy A, 1098, 1096, W3s. All that stuff goes to either the IRS or the Social Security Administration. So, the IRS copy of that stuff is on the end of this month.
And March 15th is the deadline for your tax return if you’re a corporation or if you file as a corporation. So, if you have Inc, Corp, Incorporated, Corporation in your name, if you’re a calendar year, then March 15th is your date to file an extension or to file your tax return.
Patrick: Very good.
Jeff: Then, we have another deadline which is March 31st. That’s the deadline to buy a Ford Hybrid. If you want to take advantage of the Hybrid Credit, you’ve got to buy your Ford Hybrid by March 31st.
Patrick: Now, that’s a new thing, though. That’s just been in the last year. Is that right?
Jeff: Well, the Hybrid Credit has been with us for a couple of years. But, the Fords haven’t been selling as much as like the Prius when they came out. So, now that Ford has come out with the Fusion, and it’s a big seller and they’re running out of the credit that has been allocated to them.
So, March 31st is your last chance to get the credit on the Ford Hybrid. And they have another one. I think it’s a Mercury something or other.
Patrick: That’s great. Well, we’ve got callers already coming in. That’s great; 214-787-1570, 800-583-1570 or #KLIF. We want to talk about community property and everything Valentine’s. So, Jeff, go ahead.
Jeff: Sure. First of all, if you’re new to Texas, then you may be aware that we have something called a common law marriage. Not all states have them. Common law marriage basically means you live together as husband and wife and you represent yourself to the public as husband and wife. You can be husband and wife. You can be married without going through the ceremony.
Rex: And Jeff, one person can hold that hold that out in front of the other, and the other not corrected and that qualifies as a common law marriage in Texas.
Jeff: Right. So, that’s happened to me in my office. For instance, I had explained to some people that their tax return, for the next year, look better because they were planning to get married. I’d say, “Okay. You’re going to save $7,000 next year because next year, you’re going to be filing as married filing joint.”
I’ve had a couple of clients look at each other and talk quietly in a corner. Then, the husband comes up and says, “That’s my wife, Jane so and so.” And right in my office, can you believe it? In a CPA office, I’ve had the hallowed ceremony take place and those two love birds entered themselves as husband and wife and we filed the joint return.
Patrick: I would’ve never thought that a CPA gave that kind of power and authority vested in them. I would never have expected that.
Jeff: My dad is a religious man and he says it’s one of the perks of the job of being a religious man. So, I have something over him.
Patrick: Very good – or something in common with him.
Jeff: In common with him, yeah. That’s exactly right.
Patrick: Very good, very good. Rex, you had some other stuff you wanted to add to that.
Rex: Well, yeah. Community property in Texas – Texas has a very complex statute regarding that because income from separate property in Texas is community property. A lot of people don’t realize that.
They think the rental house they had before they got married, that income is separate because that house is separate and that’s just not true. The income is community property. And that, by the way, causes people a lot of problems not only if they later go through a divorce, but it also causes problems on death if either spouse has children from prior marriages. It just creates a mess trying to sort out what exactly is separate and what exactly is community.
Jeff: Definitely. And one of the things we should mention also is that in Texas, because community property basically means one half of your income is your spouse’s and one half is yours. Married filing separate in Texas is you add them up and you divide by two and then, you report on your married filing separate tax return.
So, if you’re listening to tax shows or something on TV and they talk about this, “Well, maybe you should try marriage separate.”
Well, in Texas, those people don’t know about Texas law. They don’t address Texas Law. As a matter of fact, a lot of the IRS people – there are only ten community property states, so most of the other states don’t even deal with this. A lot of the IRS people are not aware of Texas community property. I’ve seen a lot of tax returns that are prepared by other people, even regular tax preparers, that don’t properly reflect a community split.
Patrick: Interesting. Let’s go to a caller. We’ve got a caller; Scott from Dallas. Scott, you’re on the air. Scott, do you have a question?
Scott: Yes, I do. I’d like to speak with the CPA for his thoughts about ways to possibly bring me out of AMT. I’m married, one child. My base salary is about $130,000 and I get company stock options which I exercise periodically. When I do that, it pushes my income to about 275 – 500 depending upon the year.
This year, or 2009 rather, I sold some options. So, my total income is about 250 this year and I’m getting just killed by AMT. Is there anything I can do to avoid that? I am buying and holding for at least a year, so there are long term capital gains. That’s what’s crushing me.
Jeff: Alright. Scott, that’s a very good question and what I’d like to do is I’d like to tell you exactly how to handle this just right after our break. So, coming right up.
Patrick: Very good. Scott, thank you so much.
Scott: Thank you.
Patrick: And we’ll be right back.
[commercial]
Patrick: And welcome back to Tax Talk. This is Patrick Dougher, Jeff Pickering CPA and Rex Hogue Attorney in the North Texas area. We’re talking about taxes. But, it’s a Valentine’s Day show and so we’re doing a lot with community property.
We found out that Jeff has the authority and the power vested in him to create marriage in his office, or something like that. At least, that’s the way it worked.
Jeff: I guess encourage marriage.
Patrick: Encouraged marriage.
Jeff: Right.
Patrick: And then, I know that Rex is trying to keep this whole community property thing straight. So, why don’t we talk about that a little bit more? I know we’ve got a question to answer don’t we, first? So, let’s do the question and then we’ll talk about the community property.
Jeff: Okay. Scott called in and he’s got – it sounds like what he has are called incentive stock options because he’s talking about a holding period and he’s talking about the AMT problem.
So, that AMT was originally designed to catch people from taking too many deductions. The ISO Incentive Stock Option adjustment is a typical one. It’s probably the most common one that we run into and it can really cause problems.
What you want to try to do when you’re subject to AMT is try to do things that minimize your gross income. So, that’s one of the coping strategies – anything you can do to minimize your gross income.
So, if you have investments, you would want tax free investments, especially the ones that are not subject to AMT. You want to hold rather than sell. Anything along that line will help mitigate the problem.
You have to be careful of listening to other advice because people will say, “You can double up on your property taxes and other expenses and get a double hit.” Well, if you’re subject to AMT, you don’t want to do that. That’s exactly the wrong advice.
So, you minimize your income, you plan probably around October. Scott, what you should’ve done is sat around with your tax guy or girl and said, “Okay. I’m going to exercise some options and this is how it’s going to happen.”
Most people have the ISOs. They try to exercise a little bit at a time to try to keep them from being subject to the AMT. So, that’s the most effective coping strategy is to exercise a little. If you can’t do that, then – of course, you’ve got to make money. You can’t sit there and wait for your stock to go down and then sell some. You’ve got to make money first, usually, and then worry about the tax consequences.
Patrick: You could help them, though, at your office too.
Jeff: Absolutely. If you need some help, we do planning for this kind of thing. So, we’re at 972-378-5200. That’s our office in Plano.
Patrick: What was that again?
Jeff: 972-378-5200.
Patrick: Very good. And you’ve got a tax offer – a free guide?
Jeff: Yeah. If you would like to have a freebie, what we have is we have an organizer. It’s valued at $40 and you can just call our office or email us and we’ll give you a free tax organizer.
Patrick: So, they call 972-387-5200 to get their free tax organizer and that’s for folks that are hearing this show, Tax Talk. And also, one of the things that I want to mention is that this show is actually set on my website, patrickdougher.com, by Thursday of each week. Not only is it the recording, you can download it. But, I also give the transcript.
So, if you want to look at anything that these guys say, you can actually use that information to help you in any way that you want. With that, also, let’s go on with how do you keep this information straight?
Rex: We’ve found it’s very difficult because most people don’t get any real education on how they should handle property when they get married. They don’t know how to distinguish between separate property and community property. And Texas has something called special community property that involves community property that has only one spouse’s name on it and has control by only one spouse.
So, what we’ve got today is a handout that we call Texas Community Property and it’s really two handouts. The second one is called Determining the Nature and Character of property. We normally sell that for $77. We are giving it to anyone who calls in. Call our office 972-309-0104. Leave a message or email at Rex@bigtexlaw.com.
And what we do in this handout is we explain how you can distinguish between whether it’s separate property, community property or special community property and how you have income from separate property swept into a community account, which any brokerage house can do, so that you don’t wind up comingling property which is a huge problem both in cases of divorce and in cases when one spouse dies.
A lot of people think it’s all about the divorce planning, but it’s not. It’s about what happens when one spouse dies because that is eventually going to happen.
Patrick: Wow. And I know that also there are certain situations where someone moves to the state from a non-community property state to this one. It kind of really gets messy.
Rex: It can get fuzzy and in Texas, Texas has something called quasi-community property where if you had acquired that property in Texas, it would’ve been community property. It can be deemed community property through the quasi-community property rules.
But, we also have something called the exception of title rule which says that once property is acquired, however it was acquired originally, unless you take some steps to change it, it retains its initial character.
So, it’s also possible to come back here and it might’ve been treated as community property had you owned it one way. But, because of the way you own it, it never falls under those rules.
Patrick: Very good. 214-787-1570. If you want to ask Jeff Pickering CPA, Rex Hogue Attorney about anything taxes, it’s 214-787-1570 or 800-583-1570. Call in. Ask you tax questions. We’ve got lots of information we want to give. But, we really want to answer your questions. When you think about it, Jeff, why is it that you’re doing this show?
Jeff: Well, as our little slogan says, “The more you know, the more you get to keep.” And I find that my best clients are the ones that are aware of things. They come to me and they’re already clued in on most of the things and they just want to know how to make the rubber meet the road.
Patrick: Rex, what about you? Why do you do the show?
Rex: Well, for most of our clients, they want property ultimately to be passed the way they want it passed, they want to maintain control of assets during their lifetime and they want to avoid family disputes. Those are really the three biggest things.
Of course, everybody wants to avoid taxes too. But, the other three are actually, for most people, more important and we want to help people make sure that happens and, of course, that happens by taking steps to properly plan.
Patrick: 214-787-1570, 800-583-1570 or #KLIF on your Sprint phone. We really want to make sure that you have the information that can change your tax situation as in lower it. I know death and taxes are pretty inevitable, but neither one of them are very fun and we’d rather that you minimize your taxes as much as possible. Again, the more you know, the more you get to keep.
Jeff: The more you get to keep. So, sticking to our little Valentine’s Day topic, we’re going to talk a little bit about also what are some of the strange things that interact with your tax return when you have the community property.
So, moving away from Texas four, five years doesn’t cause somebody to lose their community property status. If your home is in Texas, you can go out, you can come back in and you’ve still got community property.
As Rex said, you have something called quasi-community property and a husband who can deduct one half of his mortgage if it was paid out of a checking account that the wife had that contained rental income from a separate property because separate property income when you’re married is community.
Also, this is something that’s really strange. Alimony paid to the first wife is deductable half by the husband and half by the wife since it was community property.
Patrick: Ouch!
Jeff: Ouch, yeah!
Patrick: She’s probably real thankful that – your current wife. Ow! Well, we’ve got a caller here. We’ve got Paul. Paul, why don’t we go to you. What’s your question?
Paul: Well, I am currently separated in the process of a divorce and this is the first tax season that we will be apart from each other during taxes. I know from my attorney that the person with the primary residence of the children gets to claim them when the divorce is final. However, right now, we’re still technically married. So, we’ll be filing married separate.
Jeff: Yeah. Married filing separate; one of the worst tax brackets you can be in. Actually, whoever gets to claim the kids, you do have that business about where they’re domiciled. But, there can be separate agreements that override where the kids are.
So, it is possible for you to have agreements to share the custody of the kids – not share the custody – share the tax exemption.
Paul: Well, here’s my question. Does that also apply when you’re separated and the divorce is not final? What my situation real quick is that she went to a tax seminar and I asked her about separating the kids – I claim two, she claims two.
She said, “Well, I’m going to a tax seminar.” She then called me later and they helped her do her taxes and she claimed all four kids.
Jeff: Whoa! Ouch.
Paul: And so, here’s my question. Again, my attorney isn’t sure about before the divorce is final. Yes, after the divorce is final, if they’re residing with her, she can claim all four. However, what is my recourse at this point?
Again, I asked her to separate them, and she said she would consider it and then went and did the taxes and claimed all four. Can I claim them and then have the IRS work that out at the backend? What’s my recourse here?
Jeff: Paul, we’re going to tell you exactly what that is coming right up.
Patrick: Hey, hold on a second, Paul. The number is 214-787-1570. We’ll be right back.
[commercial]
Patrick: And welcome to Tax Talk. This is Pat Dougher. Today, we are talking about Valentine’s, ways for you to save money on your taxes in lots of different situations like that. The one thing I want to also start with is the calls. A lot of people want to know, “How do I talk to these two brilliant guys?”
You’ve got Jeff Pickering CPA, Masters in Taxation. Rex Hogue Attorney, works with estate law in the North Texas area. They really are here to give you answers while we’re on the air.
So, if you call in, 214-787-1570, 800-583-1570 if you’re out of the area and want to use that 800 number or #KLIF on your Sprint wireless phone. And if you’ve got a Blackberry, that’s #5543. Most people are moving away from the old dialing system. With that, Jeff, I know we wanted to continue with answering that guys question real quick.
Jeff: Paul’s situation is he’s separated from his wife and his wife went to a tax seminar. Shortly thereafter, filed her tax return and claimed all the kids. What probably happened is she probably filed her tax return incorrectly. I bet that Paul didn’t give his information to her so that she could file her one half of the community split.
So, what recourse he has, she is supposed to – if she’s a listener, she’ll figure this out. She is supposed to notify her husband that she’s filing without the community split before the due date of the tax return which is April 15th. That’s something that she’s supposed to do on her side.
And then, for him, if she does that, he may be kind of stuck. He can try to get the kids. But, without any agreement, if there’s no other agreement, then she’s going to be by default able to claim the kids.
Patrick: Very good. I know that one of the other big things we want to talk about in just a little bit is if you had a business involved either before you got married or while you’re married what happens, how to make sure you take care of that properly. I want to go next to Ed. Ed, you’re on the air. What’s your question?
Ed: Yes, I was calling because my wife passed away last month and I’m trying to prepare I guess for next year’s tax documents wanting to know what I need special to do.
Jeff: Well, one of the things you have to do is get an extra death certificate because you’ll file a certified copy of the death certificate with the final return for your wife. This year, you may want to note that on your tax return that you are filing and signing for your deceased wife. And then, Rex, this sounds like a total opening for you to tell this guy what to do.
Rex: Yeah. First of all, I’m sorry for the loss of your wife.
Ed: Thank you.
Rex: It’s also important that you do whatever administrative steps it takes to get property properly where it’s supposed to go according to her will or trust document. That may mean that you need to go through probate.
But, you need to get started and go ahead and take those steps. I don’t know where we are as far as estate tax depending on the size of the estate whether an estate tax return might be required. And it might not be today, but Congress could change that and make it retroactive to the first of the year. But, you absolutely need to be thinking about that too.
Ed: Okay. What determines a good probate lawyer?
Rex: We do a lot of probate in your office. I don’t know what county you’re in. But really, an attorney who has done some probate work. You really don’t want somebody who’s doing it for the first time because there’s quite a lot to doing a probate. There’s also a lot to doing an estate administration.
And those are not the same thing. A lot of people get the two confused. Probate is a process that you go through because somebody’s got their name on property, and they can no longer sign and we have to have basically a court sign their name to transfer those assets.
But, there’s other administrative things that go along with taking care of a death that don’t really have to do with changing property, but it has to do with getting things set up in the right way and moving forward with property authority.
Patrick: Great. Ed, thank you so much. I know that you should talk to Rex at his office. You can actually just call and leave your name if you want to visit with him next week or when he has a chance. The number there is 972-309-0104. Just leave your name in the general mailbox and we’ll be able to get with you. Thanks so much, Ed.
Ed: Thank you.
Patrick: You bet. I want to go right on. We’ve got a couple minutes before our next break is Charles. Charles, you are on the air. What’s your question?
Charles: Well, you had just spoke about estate taxes and that’s really what I was going to ask about. I understand we’re kind of up in the air right now with where the estate tax is going to end up. I hadn’t been extended or it’s kind of in limbo. But, let’s say it does go back or revert to a million dollars. I think that’s correct. Am I right so far?
Rex: Yes.
Charles: Okay. Is that the entire estate or is that one portion of the estate to an individual?
Rex: Well, under the law, each person can have an exemption. In the case of the 2011 law that’s on the books right now, that would mean that the husband can get a one million dollar exemption and the wife can get a one million dollar exemption.
And a lot of people think that automatically means two million. But, not only is that not automatic, but it may not even necessarily work out that way because if the husband gives all the property to the wife, he destroys his exemption. Or if the wife gives all her property to the husband, it destroys her exemption. And so, they wind up with only one one million dollar exemption.
The way that you take advantage of both of them is you create a trust where the first decedent’s assets go into that trust and they can be used to take care of the surviving spouse. But, that trust holds the exemption equivalent for the first decedent and then, the second decedent gets their exemption upon their death.
Patrick: Very good.
Charles: Do you guys set up trusts?
Rex: We set up a lot of them. We’d love to help you with that. Just give our office a call at 972-309-0104. Leave it in the general mailbox and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.
Charles: Okay.
Patrick: Very good. Jeff?
Jeff: That number?
Rex: 972-309-0104.
Patrick: Very good. Thank you. Go ahead, Jeff. Did you have anything you wanted to add?
Jeff: That’s it; wonderful, wonderful answers.
Patrick: It’s been a good show. I know we’ve got Rick here. Why don’t we go ahead and take this call. Rick, you’re on the air. What’s your question?
Rick: I’ve got a question regarding oil and gas right of ways where an oil company comes in and gets a right of way across your property for a pipeline or something like that. I understand, or someone told me, that it ends up being a wash on the tax return and you do an adjustment to the basis of a property.
Jeff: That’s one way to handle it. So, that’s definitely one way to handle it is to reduce the cost basis of your property for the easement. Right.
Rick: And then, would it be reported on a Schedule D as just a wash where if they give you a 1099?
Jeff: That’s the way I report them.
Rick: That’s the way you would do it. And then, do an adjustment to the cost basis of the property?
Jeff: Yes.
Rick: Okay. Very good.
Patrick: Thank you, Rick. Very good talking to you. So, if you want to contact Jeff, just call him at his office. It’s 972-378-5200.
Jeff: I should’ve asked Rick where they’re buying the easements. I want to know what’s going on.
Patrick: Really?
Jeff: Maybe I can get some land with some oil on it.
Patrick: Yeah, no kidding. I know that used to be just everything was – and everybody was chasing those things down.
Jeff: Right.
Patrick: One thing I do want to mention. We’re almost ready to take a break here. But, there’s a couple of free offers on the table. Yours, Jeff, is?
Jeff: Right, a tax organizer. You can use it and take it to your tax preparer. Just call our office at 972-378-5200.
Patrick: And Rex?
Rex: We have the Texas Community Property Handout. We normally sell it for $77. It’s free to those who call in this week on the show out from the Texas Workforce Commission that we’ll also be glad to send for all business owners.
Patrick: Very good. Well, we’ll be right back. This is Tax Talk on KLIF.
[commercial]
Patrick: And welcome to Tax Talk. This is your host Patrick Dougher, Jeff Pickering and Rex Hogue in the office here in the studio. We’ve got a caller on the line and what we’re going to do is let me give out the numbers here. It’s 214-787-1570, or 800-583-1570 or #KLIF on your Sprint phone.
But, if you want to ask these guys about your tax situation, Jeff Pickering CPA, Masters in Taxation and Rex Hogue, Estate Attorney in the North Texas region. You need to ask these guys your question.
This season, obviously, everybody’s thinking taxes and nobody really likes paying them. With that, why don’t we go right to Ron. Ron, what’s your question?
Ron: Yeah, I had a question regarding community property. You indicated earlier in the show that just by two couples sitting in your office they could actually tell you that they were married and, therefore, be married. So, my question to follow up on that is what would constitute a divorce if they could simply…
Jeff: That’s good. That’s a good question. In Texas, we have common law marriages, but we do not have common law divorces. So, anybody who’s contemplating on being married in their tax preparer’s office better think it through very carefully because if you want to undo that situation, you’re talking about a real divorce.
Ron: I had a second question if I can and that was with regards to rental property owned prior to the marriage. You indicated that the income from rental property was considered community property.
Jeff: In Texas.
Ron: In Texas. My follow up question on that is if that’s true, then it must also be true that the losses from the rental property is also a part of community property.
Jeff: That’s right. So, community income and losses are split with the community split.
Rex: One thing I’ll tack onto what you said, Jeff. I had somebody approach me one time and tell me he was about to get married. And after he explained his previous situation, I realized, “You’re already married.” And if he goes out and gets married again, he’s going to be married to two people at the same time. That is illegal in our country and you don’t want to do that.
Jeff: Right.
Ron: So, I had to tell him there’s no common law divorce. You’ve got to go through the process.
Jeff: That’s right.
Patrick: That’s good. Thanks so much, Ron.
Ron: Thanks. Thanks for your help.
Jeff: Just a little bit more on the deductions. So, deductions for expenses incurred to earn or produce community business or investment income is divided equally by the husband and wife. Deductions for expenses for separate business or investment income – other states normally by the separate husband and wife who earns them.
But, in Texas, we share stuff from community property. If you want to do the itemized deductions, the itemized deductions, medical expenses; they’re considered paid from community funds and they’re deductible by husband and wife half/half unless you can specifically show that it was paid from separate property funds. Like I said, when most people try to do married filing separate in Texas, they do it wrong.
Patrick: I get it; 214-787-1570 or 800-583-1570 if you want to ask Jeff Pickering CPA or Rex Hogue Attorney in the North Texas a question. Also, one of the things I want to make is that you have the numbers to get a hold of these guys. Jeff, your phone number again is?
Jeff: 972-378-5200.
Patrick: Somebody’s there, right?
Jeff: Somebody is there right now. If you’re shy and you don’t want to talk to us on the air, there’s somebody that will answer your question or make an appointment for me to answer your question.
Patrick: Very good. Rex
Rex: My number is 972-309-0104.
Patrick: And remember, this show will be on patrickdougher.com later this week and you can also read the transcripts from the last few weeks on patrickdougher.com. If there’s anything I can do for you, you can check me out there. We’ve got a caller. It’s Israel next. Israel, you’re on the air. You had a question?
Israel: Thanks for taking my call. I would like to hear if you could address – there’s a form I’ve been researching, 982 attached the bankruptcy code. Basically, I’m a contractor and I had a huge debt forgiveness last year from BOA in the amount of close to $60,000. That’s the 1099 C that I got.
Jeff: That’s right, Israel.
Israel: I’m pretty obviously broke and in solvent at the time, I have an 11 year old truck. I have a condo that’s in my wife’s name that we owe more than it’s worth and not a whole lot of assets. I’m trying to see if that’s commonly used or if you’ve got to jump through a lot of hoops because, obviously, I can’t pay taxes on another 60K on top of my regular 1099.
Jeff: Definitely. So, the general rule is that if you have debt forgiveness, then it’s income to you and that’s why they issue those 1099 Cs. But, for certain people, and your situation sounds like one of them, you don’t have to include that income because you are insolvent and insolvent means, for this purpose, insolvent means that your liabilities exceed your assets. So, it’s kind of like you’re upside down in your life financially.
Israel: Unfortunately, that’s the case. Okay. So, is that something that if I call your office – obviously, with the economic situation the way it is, I assume that a lot of people are going to be using this last year and the next couple of years if that’s available to them.
Jeff: We’ve done a few of them already. We’d be happy to help you out. Just call our office at 972-378-5200, and we’ll make sure that you’re filed properly and nobody’s going to come after you for the income.
Israel: 378-5200?
Jeff: That’s right.
Israel: Thank you very much.
Jeff: Glad to, thanks.
Patrick: Thanks, Israel. Why don’t we go on. Do you have anything to add to that, Jeff, Rex?
Jeff: Well, in Israel’s case, he’s got a condo. Other people may have a foreclosure on their home. That’s also eligible for some income exclusions on debt forgiveness.
Patrick: Awesome. Why don’t we go to Robert. Robert, you’re on the air. What’s your question?
Robert: I have two questions if I make it quickly. The tax situation for 2010 on the estate planning is supposedly zero taxes this year.
Jeff: Yes.
Robert: This is still my first question. What is on the horizon for next year? Is anything being planned in Congress? Do you have any idea what the rates will go to for 2011?
Jeff: Go ahead, Rex.
Rex: I’m skeptical of anybody who says they know what’s going to happen. Right now, the law says that we’re going to have a one million dollar exemption next year. There are all kinds of proposals out there to make it a 3.5 million exemption permanently and make it retroactive to the first of the year, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.
The further we go into the year, the more difficult it’s going to be for them to make that retroactive to the first of the year I think because, at some point, people are going to be beyond the filing date.
Jeff: Yes.
Rex: I don’t know. What’s your next question?
Robert: My next question. You were talking about a book on community property and specialty community property. Did I hear that correctly? A book that you have?
Rex: Yes; Texas Community Property and Distinguishing the Nature of Community Property, Separate Property and Special Community Property.
Robert: How can I get a hold of a copy of that?
Rex: You can call our office at 972-309-0104 or email me at Rex@bigtexlaw.com
Robert: You said Rex at what?
Rex: Big Tex Law dot com.
Robert: Okay. How much are they?
Rex: It’s free if you simply tell us that you were listening to the show to day. It’s ordinarily $77, but it’s free if you just mention the show.
Robert: How wonderful. That’s a blessing. I really appreciate that. 972-309-0104.
Rex: Yes.
Robert: Great. You guys have got a great program. It’s so informative. [51:50 inaudible]. I’ll be calling you for a consultation and so forth.
Jeff: Great. We hope you tell others. We appreciate all the listeners we get.
Rex: Yes.
Patrick: Thank you very much, Robert. We appreciate that.
Robert: You’re welcome. What days will you be on so I can listen next week and so forth?
Patrick: Every week, Sunday at noon.
Robert: Sunday at noon. Okay. 570.
Patrick: Yep, 570. They call that Radioactive Talk Radio, 570 KLIF. Thanks so much, Robert.
Robert: You’re very welcome. I appreciate you guys very much.
Jeff: I’m glad.
Robert: Bye.
Patrick: Okay. Well, that was a great call. I appreciate the extra. I’m sure Rex appreciates the plug and I encourage you guys to call his office. Jeff, call his office. Set an appointment. And we’re very thankful for the 570 audience. They really are responsive. They are Radioactive.
So, with that, I know it’s going to be next week before we talk to you again. Thank you for listening and if you want, listen to the show and read the transcript on http://www.patrickdougher.com. Thanks again. We’ll talk to you next week.

Tags | save taxes, Tax, Tax Talk, Taxes