Articles and publications

Criminal Law. If you are ever arrested you must understand the following.

1. Always demand a lawyer and keep your mouth shut until your lawyer arrives. Do not believe that you will be in a better position if you answer questions asked by the police. Remember, you have the right to a lawyer and the right to remain silent. If you give up those rights you can expect to be convicted and possibly go to jail.

2. Always be on time for your court appearances even if your attorney is not. Remember, it is you who is charged with a crime. If you are not in court when your case is called you can expect that the judge will issue a bench warrant for your arrest. If you are arrested for not showing up in court you can expect that you will have to pay a very high amount of bail or that you will not be permitted bail and will be sitting in jail until your case is over.

3. Finally, in the New York Sate system there are three types of acts controlled by the NYS penal law. The worst is a felony. A felony is defined as a crime for which you can be sentenced to a term of one year or more in jail. Then there is the misdemeanor. A misdemeanor is defined as a crime for which you can be sentenced to a term of up to one year in jail. Finally, if you are convicted of what is defined as a violation you will not have been convicted of a crime. If you are convicted of a felony you will forever be a convicted felon and must answer questionnaires by admitting that you have been convicted of a felony as well as that you have been convicted of a crime. If you are convicted of a misdemeanor you must answer questionnaires by admitting that you have been convicted of a crime. If you are convicted of a violation you have not been convicted of a crime and do not have a criminal record. Unless you agree to unseal them, all convictions for violations must be sealed. You answer questionnaires that you had not been convicted of a crime.... Read More »

Vladimir vaatimus Irina

Edellä esitetyn perusteella ja pykälän 328 Venäjän Tasavallan Siviili-prosessuaalisen Lakikokoelman, Pietarin kaupungin käräjäoikeuden tuomioistuimen täysistunto.
PÄÄTTI:
Pietarin kaupungin alueen Dzerzhinsky oikeuden päätös 02.joulukuuta 2015 kumotaan.
Vladimir U. vaatimus Irina K. lapsen palautumista asuinmaan kansainvälisen sopimuksen nojalla, on hylätty. Read More »

YOUR TAX RETURN - 2011 EDITION

For those yet blissfully unaware, it is my unpleasant duty to focus your attention once again to the dreaded and tedious task of gathering together your tax information. The “tax filing season,” as tagged by tax professionals, who, from it earn a living, culminates for most with the filing of a tax return some time before April 15 and for some not until October 15. You should now have received most of your tax information and hopefully are already engaged in organizing that information for filing your 2010 Form 1040.

This year, with many last-minute tax law changes, and uncertainty about the future structure of the tax law, one must wonder if the process should be listed as a disorder in the standard psychiatric diagnostic manual DSM V. For, often, it feels wholly irrational to be spending as much time pondering and fretting about a chameleon-like tax law and the largely misunderstood act of filing one’s tax return. Anton Chekov in his novel “Ward Number 6” ruminates on the definition of sanity and who gets to decide who is sane and who is not. Are we insane to subscribe our names to inscrutable documents; or, is the fear of being unfairly punished for one’s ignorance, merely paranoid? One might justifiably feel that the government is setting you up. In making the tax code incomprehensible to all but the highest level of specialized tax professionals (which excludes even most tax preparers) you are perhaps intentionally induced to err in the execution. I suspect that few comprehend how most of the many entries on their tax return are determined. Many who carefully examine a restaurant check before paying, scantly peruse their tax return before signing and filing

SELF ASSESSMENT MADNESS
The self assessment tax system is an odd concept. Your real estate tax bill is determined by the county assessor and millage rate. The sales tax you pay is derived from what you spend. How your income tax liability is determined, however, is akin to a cus... Read More »

Avoid Unnecessary Tax on Divorce Payments

When a couple is going through a divorce, taxes are probably not foremost in their minds. But without proper planning and advice, some people find divorce to be an even more taxing experience. Two cases illustrate some of the pitfalls:

1. Paying an ex-spouse a share of the business. As part of a divorce decree, the husband was ordered to pay his wife for her stake in a family-owned corporation. The payments, which included an interest charge, were supposed to be spread over a period of ten years. But instead of making the payments out of his own pocket, the husband directed the corporation to pay his ex-wife.

The IRS said the money paid by the corporation constituted taxable dividends to the husband. Why? There was no valid business reason for having the corporation pay his ex-wife directly (IRS Field Service Advice 200203061). As for the ex-wife, only the interest portion of the payments represented taxable income to her.

2. Making alimony payments the wrong way. Alimony payments are deductible by the person paying them and taxable income to the recipient. And, as one ex-husband found out, there are strict rules about what qualifies as alimony under the tax law.

In the case, the taxpayer's payments were not found to be made on account of a divorce decree or written separation agreement. (John Alleva, 2002-1 USTC 50,188; U.S. District Court, East. Dist. N.Y.)

The taxpayer claimed he had an oral agreement with his former wife. Unfortunately, in order to deduct payments as alimony, they must be required in writing as part of the divorce decree. They must also be made in cash, by check or money order.

In the same case, the taxpayer claimed that payments made on joint credit card debts constituted alimony. However, one of the requirements for alimony is that the payments must cease if the recipient ex-spouse dies. But with the credit card debts, if the taxpayer's former wife died, he still would have been obligated to make payments.

Two more tax tra... Read More »

SECOND CHANCE FOR OFFSHORE TAX SCOFFLAWS

This special issue describes the just announced new special 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure initiative opened by IRS in its continued attempt to bring more non-compliant taxpayers back into the system. Due to the importance of this development I’ve not included literary or philosophical references in this issue.

LAST BEST CHANCE
On February 8, 2011, the IRS announced in IR 2011-14 a second special voluntary disclosure initiative called the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (2011 OVDI). Why is this a good time for those still out in the cold to come back into the tax reporting system? Some reasons to ponder are:

• About 15,000 tax scofflaws entered the initial voluntary disclosure window which closed on October 15, 2009. From those cases, IRS has obtained and continues to amass substantial information about other banks and other US persons with unreported offshore financial accounts.

• Additional cases involving banks other than UBS are now under review by IRS and will be forthcoming.

• The HIRE Act imposes new Foreign Financial Asset Reporting on Form 1040 in 2011 and substantially increases the already draconian civil penalties that apply to unfiled FBAR reports. Criminal problems for those who ignore the new reporting requirement are also exacerbated.

• The HIRE Act extends the civil statute of limitations for reporting violations to six years

• The IRS has successfully obtained convictions and guilty pleas in a number of criminal cases regarding UBS account holders. Undoubtedly, more criminal cases will be brought.

• New treaties and information sharing agreements with tax haven governments have been signed and others are in the works. There are now fewer hiding places that cannot be pierced.

• Entering the program allows one to calculate with reasonable certainty to total dollar cost of settling one’s tax and reporting obligations.

• Being accepted into the program allows one to avoid possible s... Read More »