Apple, the world’s most profitable technology company, was able to save billions in taxes using a complicated web of shelters around the world, going beyond anything most tax experts had ever seen. According to an article in The New York Times, investigators said that some of Apple’s subsidiaries had no employees and were run from [...]
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Although legislation was passed this year on the estate tax, limiting the top tax to 40 percent, with only estates worth over $5.25 million subject to the tax, President Obama’s budget still wants to return to the 2009 levels starting in 2018. Under the proposal, starting in 2018, the top estate, gift and generation skipping [...]
Roman Blum, a survivor of the Holocaust, died last year at age 97 and left an estate worth $40 million — with no will. It is the largest unclaimed estate in the history of New York State, according to a UPI.com report citing the New York Times. If no heirs come forward within three years, [...]
Congress has dealt with the estate tax issue, determining that the federal tax will now kick in at $5.25 million, so only the wealthy have to think much about estate planning anymore, right? Wrong. According to a recent New York Times article, even the “non-wealthy” still need to pay close attention to estate planning. For [...]
It is harder than talking to your children about sex. What? Talking about their inheritances. Telling heirs how much they are going to inherit is fraught with emotional trip wires for parents who may feel guilty about how much money they have or who don’t want to give their children a sense of entitlement or [...]
Americans under the age of 40 lag far behind their parents in accruing wealth, according to a new study. The study by the Urban Institute, reported on in the New York Times, found that those under 40 have accrued far less wealth than their parents had at that time in their lives, even as the [...]
Under the deal struck in Congress to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” the estate tax survived, although it was watered down some. In 2001, when President George W. Bush took office, individual estates over $675,000 were taxed, with a top rate of 55 percent. Now, the top tax is 40 percent and only individual estates over [...]
It happens all the time, right? People are always moving to avoid high taxes. Either they are moving out of the country or from one state to another. Well, not really. Recently, French actor Gerard Depardieu said he might move to Russia because of its low 13 percent flat tax on personal income. And golfer [...]
The 2012 Presidential election was all about taxes — the Democrats said the rich were not paying their fair share and the nation agreed. During the campaign, Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men, complained that he paid a lower rate than his secretary. Now, taxes on the rich have inched upwards as part [...]
Some people complain that family wealth is a curse. Kids get too much too soon. They lose motivation. Family members focus on money to the exclusion of all else. And it can lead to low self-esteem, since you inherited the money and didn’t make it yourself. All that can be true. But an article in [...]