Blog
Articles and updates from our family of firms on tax, probate, business, and related topics.
-
Signing an IRS Agreement With Missing Forms
IRS audits do happen. When they do, it seems like they drag on. But they do end. At the end of an audit, IRS auditors will almost always hand over a stack of paper. Sign here, initial there, and the case closes. The forms are dense. They almost always reference other forms. Sometimes the other……
-
The IRS Has to Mail Levy Notices to the Right Address
Taxpayers move. They move their homes, they move their offices, and they file returns from whatever address they happen to be using that year. That is the way it works. The IRS is supposed to keep up. When the IRS wants to levy on a taxpayer’s property, it has to send the warning notice to……
-
When a Will Contest Is Filed in the Wrong Texas Court After a Probate Transfer
Learn how a statutory probate bill of review can challenge Texas probate orders, transfer disputes, and probate jurisdiction rulings in court. The post When a Will Contest Is Filed in the Wrong Texas Court After a Probate Transfer appeared first on San Antonio Probate Attorneys.
-
When a Trust Says “Mandated” but Means Discretionary: A Creditor’s Failed Garnishment
A spendthrift trust is supposed to be a wall. Someone sets up a trust for a family member, adds language saying creditors cannot touch it, and the money stays out of reach even if the beneficiary gets sued and loses. That is the whole point. But a wall is only as good as the words…
-
When a Trustee Ignores the Trust: How Texas Courts Use Receivers to Enforce a Settlor’s Clear Intent
Family ranch disputes have a way of outlasting everyone’s patience. Someone dies, land is left behind, old grievances resurface, and the person holding the pen as trustee often turns out to be one of the beneficiaries with something to gain from delay. Years pass. Nothing gets sold. Nothing gets divided. The estate grinds to a…
-
When the Seller Dies Before the Deal Closes: Membership Interest Sales, Guaranties, and the Estate’s Right to Collect
Most probate work involves the assets you can see. A house, a bank account, a retirement plan, a stack of savings bonds in a safe deposit box. But some of the most valuable things an estate owns are not things at all. They are promises. A buyer who still owes money on a deal. A…
-
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…