Tax Prepration

Without Medicaid planning, generally you can only keep $2,000 of countable assets (as a single person). If you need Medicaid assistance in a nursing home. Medicaid planning allows you to preserve some of your assets as allowed by law, but don’t expect to hear about this from the Medicaid office. Through careful planning, you can preserve assets to supplement your own needs while on Medicaid, and also to pass along an inheritance to your children.

People often ask about gifting assets to a child. The problem is, that you have no control over assets you give away. Some children can be trusted with money, some can’t. But even the most trustworthy child might divorce, or lose his or her job and wind up in debt, or even become disabled or die unexpectedly. What happens then? You don’t want your child’s problems to bump into your money. Gifting assets outright may be the only choice in a crisis situation; but if you’re planning ahead you may want to consider a trust arrangement.

Your estate planning should accomplish three purposes: protect yourself; protect your family; and give you peace of mind. How you do that varies, so we’ve given you some fundamentals to get started.

Estate planning is more than just a will, since you should plan for possible incapacity as well as death. You at least need to do this:

• Prepare a will, naming who, after your death, will administer your estate to gather your assets, pay your bills, and distribute what’s left to the people you name.
• Have a financial power of attorney, naming someone to make financial decisions for you during your lifetime in case you become incapacitated due to illness, disease or accident, and to give that person the powers they will need to make sure that you are properly cared for and your assets can be used for your benefit and the benefit of your loved ones.
• Give medical instructions, and name an agent for health care through a Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will.

When filing for an Offer in Compromise, the IRS requires you to file several documents in order to be considered for this type of tax settlement.

The Offer in Compromise is a long and tedious filing with lots of documentation required. The IRS does not make it easy for individuals to receive this type of relief and they make sure it is only available to those individuals who really need it. It is best for taxpayers to work with a tax negotiation company when filing for an offer in compromise. A tax negotiation company can analyze an individual’s financial situation and determine how likely they are to receive this form of settlement.