Demetrius J. Karos, Ltd. Tax Representation From A Former IRS Employee
Most people would agree that going to college is expensive. Even if you, your spouse or one of your children is an Illinois resident and attends a state school, tuition represents a significant expense. Private and out-of-state tuition could reach well into the thousands of dollars per year.
When it comes time to do your income taxes, you could receive some relief from those costs. Admittedly, you may not get back as much as you would like, but something is often better than nothing.
Many family members in Frankfort and other parts of the Chicago community help their loved ones out by loaning them money. In many cases, these loans are either officially or unofficially forgivable.
To give a practical example, few Illinois parents would honestly expect their children to repay the parents loaned their children for a house if the children are financially not able to do so.
Trusts are popular among residents of Frankfort and other parts of the greater Chicago area primarily because they can keep a person's estate out of probate and greatly simplify the process of passing along property to loved ones after the person dies.
In most cases, Illinois residents wanting to take this route will create a revocable trust, that is, a trust that they can still easily change or, for that matter, even withdraw altogether. The revocable trust allows a person to maintain control over her own property while still getting the benefits of having a trust.
With April 15 coming up quickly, most residents of Frankfort and the other Chicago suburbs are looking forward to filing their taxes, paying what they owe or collecting their refund and being done with income taxes for the year.
However, some residents of Illinois and Illinois business owners will inevitably face an audit from the IRS. At times, these audits are simply luck of the draw, but in many if not most cases, the IRS has a reason to want to check over a filer's tax return and see if there are any mistakes.
The last thing anyone wants to see when doing their income taxes is that they owe money to the IRS. It can be tempting to just ignore the situation. After all, there is no debtor's prison in the United States.
However, the IRS is not powerless when it comes to collecting taxes it believes you legally owe. You could suffer dire financial consequences for not addressing the situation, and the longer you wait, the worse it can get.
People who are disabled either due to an illness or injury or simply on account of condition they have had since early childhood may require a lot of care and support. Likewise, an Illinois resident getting along in years may suddenly find himself no longer capable of handling his basic financial or personal affairs.
In these sorts of circumstances, the person's loved ones may discover that they need legal authority to assist their friend or relative by caring for them and managing their property. While certain estate planning documents, like a power of attorney, can allow a person to confer this authority on someone they trust in advance. At other times, it is necessary for a family in the Chicago area to go to an Illinois court for help after the fact.
As many people who follow the news know, a large group of well-connected and wealthy people face multiple criminal charges for their role in a scheme to get their children in top schools.
The point of the scheme, according to federal prosecutors, was to get their students in to the best schools in this country by paying out bribes and kickbacks rather than navigating through the system honestly.
Many Illinois not-for-profit corporations, both in the Chicago area and in other parts of the state, may wish to try to take advantage of a special tax-exempt status awarded by the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS.
Not only does this status give oftentimes critical tax breaks to the not-for-profit, it also gives donors to the organization the option of writing off their donations as a tax deduction. This is a strong additional incentive for the person to make a donation, particularly if that person is a high earner.
While it is quite easy for one to focus on what will happen to her property after she dies, it is equally important for a resident of the Chicago area to plan for what will happen to her as she ages and, consequently, starts facing health problems.
When a person starts having health problems, he will likely get in to a situation where he can no longer make medical decisions himself. Incidentally, this can happen to a much a younger person too, as in the case of an unanticipated illness or an accident.
If you are like other Illinois residents, part of your New Year's resolutions was to create an estate plan. Doing so could put your mind and the minds of your family members at ease.
As you begin formulating your estate plan, you may determine that the addition of a trust would best serve your purposes. In that case, you will need to choose someone to serve as trustee after your death. This choice may be the most important one you make for a variety of reasons.
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