Demetrius J. Karos, Ltd. Tax Representation From A Former IRS Employee
Most residents of the greater Chicago area probably recognize that owing back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, is a serious legal problem. The IRS has a number of powerful legal tools that it can use to collect tax revenues that are simply not available to other creditors.
Likewise, tax debts are treated differently in the bankruptcy process, making them even more likely to be collected.
As part of almost any estate plan, a resident of the greater Chicago area is going to want to give some guidance on how she want her health care to go. This is particularly important as the chances of a serious illness increase because the person may not be able to make such decisions for herself, even when those decisions involve life or death.
There are a couple of different estate planning tools that Illinois residents use to ensure that when it comes to their medical care, their wishes are respected. These tools are serve slightly different purposes, and it is important to know the unique features of each.
There are probably very few people in the greater Chicago area who really want to go through an IRS audit of their federal tax returns, even if it is simply a desk audit involving an exchange of correspondence.
The process will involve time and resources, and it may end with the IRS demanding additional tax money, as well as interest and penalties for not paying in a timely fashion. This is so even if the underpayment was not malicious.
It seems as though the months tend to go by faster each year. Before you know it, it's already October, and the holidays are just around the corner. Also just around the corner is the end of the year, which means that you may be running out of time to reduce your taxable income.
However, that does not mean that you are out of time, just that you need to make some decisions soon. You may still be able to save on your taxes, but you may need some guidance before deciding how to proceed in order to protect your interests.
There is something very alluring about offshore banking that makes it a common theme in movies and novels. Usually, the person engaging in the behavior is, at least implicitly, doing something illegal by using the offshore account or, at best, is trying to cover his tracks.
In real life, people in the Chicago area and in other parts of the country can and do get accused of tax evasion in light of their holding offshore account.
Previous posts on this blog have talked about how businesses of all sizes in Illinois have an obligation to withhold federal and state payroll taxes from employees. They do not have to do so with respect to independent contractors who work for their business on occasion.
Businesses still have some legal obligations with respect to these independent contractors, however. Specifically, the employer must file what is called an informational return with the Internal Revenue Service, as the IRS still needs to know when and how people are being paid.
A previous post on this blog talked about how likely it is for a resident of the greater Chicago area to face an IRS tax audit. The likelihood of an IRS audit depends heavily on how much money a person makes, and it can also depend on a number of other factors that the IRS generally keeps tight-lipped about.
The comforting thing, though, is that according to recent statistics, only a very small number of tax returns filed in a given year, about one half of one percent, actually receive any kind of audit at all. In other words, of the 196 million returns filed with the IRS, around 1.1 million received an audit.
As this blog has reported on previous occasions, several people and businesses in the greater Chicago area are going to face a tax audit from the IRS in the upcoming weeks and months, assuming they have not done so already. It may leave an Illinois resident wondering what their chances of getting audited really are.
The answer depends in large part on how much money they make. For someone reporting income of less than $200,000, the chances of being audited in a given year are about 1 in 100, meaning that it is possible, but not very likely.
Owning a business can be a satisfying experience. You may have had many goals throughout your life all leading up to the owning and operating of your company that you recently started. While you may have considered various aspects of the business from start-up costs to employment contracts, you also need to make sure you understand the tax implications.
Business taxes are much more complex than personal taxes. In fact, your company will have to contend with various types of taxes. Therefore, it will likely work in your best interests to understand the different types, which ones may apply to your business and where you can seek help with properly addressing your company's tax obligations.
Previous posts on this blog have discussed some of the many services our law office offers to those in the greater Chicago area who are trying to plan what will happen to their assets when they die.
The goal of many of these people is to pass as much of their wealth on to their loved ones as is possible, and our law office's goal when planning an estate is to help our clients do just this through a careful and strategic creation of various estate planning devices like wills, trusts of various sorts and even corporations that are designed to protect a persons' assets.
Make an appointment at one of our conveniently located offices today.
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