Articles and publications

Russian Divorce for New Jersey

The Decision refers to the doctrine of comity and states that Russia recognizes New Jersey’s Marriage and Divorce. If Russia recognizes marriage and divorce in New Jersey, then New Jersey must recognize a divorce in Russia too. Read More »

YOUR TAX RETURN

Every winter just following the New Year’s arrival, Americans revisit a dreaded and tedious process - gathering together 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.

It is appropriate that we occasionally reflect on the process and its product. The entire affair at times strikes me as bordering on the insane. Often, it feels wholly irrational to spend as much time as we do pondering and fretting about a largely misunderstood act, the filing of a 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 us up. By making the tax code incomprehensible to all but the highest level of specialized tax professionals (which excludes even most tax preparers) we are perhaps induced often 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, only 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 customer being allowed to set the price when buying a car subject only to an occasional adjustment by a fair price commission choosing to review one percent of purchases. The taxpayer determines his tax by the income and deductions he reports subject to audit. Matching Forms 1099, K-1s and W-2s has taken away ... Read More »

Moratorium on adoptions from Russia

Let me clarify - yes, someone should look out for the child's best interests but that DOES NOT absolve one from responsibility of taking a child with all the baggage that it may have. If this woman is not charged with, at least, child abandonment and endangering the welfare of a child, then its just carte blanche for everyone to drop their ill or poorly behaved children - natural born or adopted - at the nearest hospital or police station with a "no thanks" post-it stuck to them.... Read More »

Artem Saveliev

OK, here are my two cents. I think there's blame enough to go around for everyone. Given the well-known corruption within Russian government, I'm sure adoptive parents (whether Russian or American) are not given the full disclosure on the mental/physical status of these orphan kids and that information regarding any physical and mental disabilities is hazy at best. So I'm sure there is at least a grain or many grains of truth in the adoptive mother's claim that she wasn't given "full disclosure". However, you simply don't take a 7 year old child, even if he is a sociopath (by no means proven in this case), and "return to sender" if for no other reason than he is a 7-year old child!!! If you have a modicum of sense and see these kinds of problems in your child--doesn't matter if he's biological or adopted--you find help for that child. That's what a parent does. This one clearly didn't.

So, to the extent there's blame on both sides, hopefully it will get addressed on both sides. Russian government needs to fix its process and transparency at the source and US authorities need to investigate this "mother" for her actions.

The saddest part in all this is that this event has the potential to disrupt many other adoptions of kids who, absent adoptive parents, have no future. Russian media has gone to town with this case making it an example of the "bad Americans". And granted, there are some and there have been well documented cases of Russian kids abused by adoptive American parents. But, who's adopting these kids in Russia? Almost no one because there is no culture of adoption in Russia. Yet, there have been thousands of successful American adoptions. So they don't want to give the kids to Americans, but can't take care of them themselves. Who suffers from this righteous indignation? The kids. The government just gets to score political points.... Read More »

Adoption from Russia

I don't know the details of what went on in that house BUT from what limited information is available, I think that the fault lies with the Russian adoption officials. They need to do a far better job of psychologically evaluating the people they place these children with. I think that what happened to this boy is heartbreaking and that this "parent" is mentally unstable. She took a seven year old child, brought him to a strange country, changed his NAME, and immersed him in learning a foreign language in a home school environment. Did she expect a 7 year old to say "thank you" to her? What seven year old wouldn't act out under a far less stressful set of facts? He is not a dog - how can you change his name? How can you completely alienate him from everything familiar to him? How was he supposed to communicate, to express himself? Isn't it normal for kids to act out when they feel they have no control or when they are frustrated? I think maybe this kid was crying out for help. I have yet to read anything he did that was so outrageous. Saying he will burn the house down? So what - maybe he saw that in a movie. Did he actually try to light the house on fire? I just read an article that said the adoption agency followed up with her a few months ago, and she had no complaints.

Maybe the child does have psychological or emotional problems, I don't know. But what I think is certain is that if he didn't have them before being placed with this person, he will surely have them after the ordeal she put him through. I don't want to judge but I can't help finding her actions unconscionable. Did she even try to get help from psychologists, etc. before shipping this kid back to Russia as if he were a broken appliance she could just return?

I read that in the past couple of years, there have been several US adoptive parents that have killed the kids they adopted from Russia. Are the Russians doing ANY psychological evaluations before placing these kids? Heartbreaking any ... Read More »