MAYBE THAT “CASHLESS” SOCIETY THAT WE’VE BEEN TOLD IS COMING ISN’T NECESSARILY GOING TO BE ALL GOOD12/31/2015 At least a couple of commentators think there are reasons why the elimination of cash could have negative, or at least unintended from the point of view of the consumer, consequences.
If they are right, could this be a reason to start using bitcoin?
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Following up on my post back in September about a frightening sequence of events involving the estate of the former owner of the Detroit Pistons, a recent item on the Law360 web site indicates, by my reading, that the lawsuit filed by that estate against its tax advisers is not likely to get resolved anytime soon.
The Law360 item also indicates that I underestimated the amount the estate paid to the IRS in a settlement of the IRS’ claims against the estate. It says the settlement amount was $457 million, and the estate ended up paying the IRS more than $708 million in estate and gift taxes, penalties and interest. The IRS claimed that the estate owed $2.7 billion. That’s $2,700,000,000 claimed, and $708,000,000 paid. The estate is claiming damages of at least $500,000,000 against its tax advisers. It’s a blog post of a newspaper column originally published in 2000, but the advice is timeless:
1) Keep yourself out of court if humanly possible. 2) When appearing before a judge for any reason, “[i]f you have the option of either saying something or not saying something, whenever possible don’t say anything.” Via Overlawyered. In addition to the item in which I explain the basics for handling U. S. savings bonds, my Estate Planning Law Report for December goes over the different types of health care directives, and discusses a proposed incentive for Medicare beneficiaries who create such directives electronically.
What are health care directives? Under Arizona law, they include health care powers of attorney, mental health powers of attorney, living wills, and prehospital medical care directives. I always bring up the subject of health care directives when discussing estate planning with my clients (if they don’t bring it up first). It’s a subject about which many people are concerned but feel inadequately informed. I can help with that. Dave Barry's Year in Review.
I'm now officially ignoring politics, but before I started ignoring that subject, I read enough news that there's very little in Dave Barry's annual column that I didn't know about. I will probably read it again next week, while continuing to ignore all the stuff it's about. Following up on a post I wrote a few weeks ago, if you are planning your estate, or handling someone else’s estate, and need information about how to deal with U.S. savings bonds, I expanded on the subject in my most recent Estate Planning Law Report. In it I discuss some basic rules for registering and transferring the bonds and how the rules for registering them might fit with your estate plan.
Assisted by my excellent production staff, I produce the Estate Planning Law Report, or one of its counterparts, Real Estate Law Update and Tax Law Special Report, every month. In addition to posting the newsletter in the publications section at deconcinimcdonald.com, we mail it every month to our mailing list of friends, clients, and basically anyone who has asked to be included. If you want to be added to the mailing list, just send me an email. You’ll find all my contact information on the main page of this web site, as well as on my bio page at my firm’s web site. … when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers (is that how that line goes?). It sounds like that’s what the British government’s Health Select Committee on Childhood Obesity may have in mind. I have written in two previous posts about their proposal to make sure the citizens of that country are protected from the menace of sugar. Today I found a commentary that gives some more detail on the proposal, including this: the committee wants to reduce sugar consumption in Britain by 50%. Here’s that commentator’s opinion on what implementation of that goal would mean: Clearly, it would take an extraordinarily overbearing state to move consumption anywhere close to this target. Today's report gives the clearest indication yet of what such a state might look like. The committee wants to dictate how much sugar can be used, where it can be sold and how much it can be sold for. It wants an 'outright ban' on confectionery and other disfavoured food products being displayed at the end of supermarket aisles and check-outs. It wants non-food shops, such as WH Smith, to stop offering confectionery at the till. It wants commercials for bacon, cheese and butter to be confined to late night television. It wants the government to regulate the size of food portions in shops and restaurants. In short, it wants the world on a stick. Hat tip: Overlawyered.
The Instapundit puts it bluntly on cause and effect between high housing prices and government regulation.
You can debate whether, and to what extent, the government regulation is good/necessary, but I don’t think you can seriously dispute that it has an effect on the cost of housing. To me, it’s just an interesting fact. I’ll bet not many people are aware of it: The federal government owns more than one quarter of the land in the nation, about 640 million acres. The holdings are concentrated in the West, where it owns about half of the 11 westernmost states. |
AuthorThe contents of this blog, this web site, and any writings by me that are linked here, are all my personal commentary. None of it is intended to be legal advice for your situation. Archives
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