When an elderly person develops dementia or another condition that renders them mentally incapacitated, family members often step in as guardians to manage their affairs. The guardian pays bills, manages property, and makes healthcare decisions. But what happens when the incapacitated person is married, and family members believe the marriage should end? Can a guardian…
TX-LW Blogs
Does Partial Victory in Probate Litigation Guarantee Attorney Fee Recovery?
Family disputes over estates often involve multiple fronts of litigation. A will contest might accompany challenges to beneficiary designations. Claims of undue influence might target both probate and non-probate assets. When the dust settles and the jury delivers a mixed verdict, upholding the will but invalidating an IRA designation, who pays the legal bills? This…
What “Authority” for Accountant Nullifies the Disability Exception for Tax Refunds?
Deadlines are a central feature of our tax system. We have written about many of these various deadlines on this website. From deadlines for filing returns, deadlines for various tax elections, to deadlines for filing appeals from audits, to deadlines for filing collection actions, deadlines for appeling IRS audits, and even tax court and other……
Can Federal Courts Resolve POD Account Disputes Despite the Probate Exception?
Payable-on-death (“POD”) accounts pass directly to named beneficiaries upon death through the contract with the financial institution. Probate court would seem the natural fit when disputes arise over who validly changed those designations. When someone dies, leaving bank accounts behind, family members typically expect the probate court to oversee the distribution of the funds. But…
Undue Influence Claims Texas Probates for Late-Life Remarriage and Relationships
Last minute estate plan changes often result in disputes. These disputes often involve situations where a elderly and newly widowed parent remarries or finds a new romantic partner quickly after their spouse’s death. There are often questions by the adult children about whether the new spouse or partner gained influence over the parents’ finances, particularly…
When Settlement Funds Belong to the Estate, Who Can Settle Claims?
When a loved one dies due to someone else’s negligence, family members often find themselves navigating two parallel legal worlds: wrongful death claims that belong to individual family members and survival claims that belong to the deceased person’s estate. The litigation is often prosecuted by a personal injury law firm. They may or not may…
Can an Active Limited Partner Avoid Self-Employment Tax?
Self-emploiyment taxes are an additional tax over and above any income tax that may be due. The amount can be significant—these Social Security and Medicare taxes can add up to 15.3% on top of ordinary income tax rates. For smaller businesses, it is often a very large part of the overall tax due. How this……
When Providing Information to the IRS Discloses Additional Tax Due
The IRS consumes information about taxpayers. By and large, that is what the IRS is–a vacuum for information. It then processes the information and applies statutorily mandated processes to evaluate the information. The processes are geared toward evaluating whether additional tax is owed and then recording that balance on the IRS’s books, so that the……
Missed Opportunity When a Partner Dies: the Section 754 Election
There are tax opportunities that come up when someone dies. Many of these relate to those who own real estate in LLCs or partnerships. One such a opportunity the Section 754 election for partnerships. This is a valuable election–one of the most commonly missed–thatallows the partnership to adjust its inside basis in assets to match……