Blog
Articles and updates from our family of firms on tax, probate, business, and related topics.
-
Lying to Business Partners Becomes Tax Fraud
A business owner runs the books himself. He codes some personal expenses as business costs so the other owners will not see how much the company pays for his lifestyle. He is not thinking about the IRS at all. He just does not want his partners asking questions. Years later, the IRS shows up and……
-
Mortgage After Death: The Texas Statutory Probate Lien and What Heirs Need to Know
Inheriting a house can feel like a gift, right up until the bills attached to it start showing up. When someone dies owning a home with an unpaid mortgage, the heirs who step into ownership do not step into a clean slate. The debt rides along with the property. And if those heirs ignore a…
-
When a Power of Attorney Agent Names Himself the Beneficiary: The Hidden Trap in Annuity Beneficiary Changes
Picture a loved one in the final hours of her life. Someone close to her—someone she trusted enough to name as her agent under a durable power of attorney—rushes to change the beneficiary on her annuity. The paperwork gets faxed. The power of attorney gets attached. On the surface it looks like a routine beneficiary…
-
When the Surviving Spouse Intervenes and Loses Standing: Lessons from a Texas Blended-Family Probate Fight
Blended families and intestate estates are a recipe for conflict in Texas probate. When someone dies without a will and leaves behind a surviving spouse, children from an earlier marriage, and a single piece of real estate that several people claim, the courthouse is rarely far behind. Those fights get messier still when a relative…
-
For the COVID Sick Leave Credit, What is a Real Business?
The COVID pandemic impacted just about every business in the U.S. Right or wrong, Congress acted to prevent the financial fallout. This was accomplished in large part by making refundable tax credits available to businesses and business owners. Small business owners spent 2020 and 2021 and the years that follow trying to claim the tax……
-
When Life Gets in the Way: Ignorance of the Law, Personal Crisis, and the Four-Year Probate Deadline in Texas
When someone dies unexpectedly, especially in a traumatic accident, a filing deadline buried in the Texas Estates Code is the last thing on the family’s mind. People are grieving. Caregiving duties shift overnight. The paperwork of settling an estate slides to the bottom of the list. And in families where property has passed informally and…
-
When the Court Steps In: How a Spouse’s Pattern of Lies Justified a Sua Sponte Receivership Over Trust Assets in Texas
There is a scenario that estate attorneys and probate professionals see more often than they would like: an elderly or grieving testator, weakened by illness and loss, enters a new relationship late in life, and that relationship reshapes the disposition of an estate built over decades. When the new spouse then controls the finances, moves…
-
The Attorney Took Their Cut. Why Do You Owe Tax on It?
Imagine you sue a company over a mistake on your credit report. You win a settlement. Your lawyer takes their cut off the top, and you walk away with a small check for what feels like a big fight. Then a Form 1099 shows up, and it reports the entire settlement as your income—including the……
-
When a Premarital Agreement Shields a Separate-Property Empire: The Limits of “Just and Right” in a Texas Divorce
Imagine spending nearly thirty years as a homemaker while your spouse builds a multimillion-dollar business and then discovering, at the moment of divorce, that the community estate is worth less than $85,000. No retirement account. No real property. Half of a joint checking account that totals around $14,000 after credit card debt. Meanwhile, your spouse’s…
-
A Customer Paid to Expand Your Factory. Is That Income?
Your business has a big customer. The customer wants more product than your business can make. So the customer offers to pay for a building expansion on your property to allow you to make their product. Your business does not take a dime of that building money. The cash goes straight to the contractor from……