January 1, 2011

After a valiant fight, Jack Jenkins died at 4 a.m.

September 1, 2011

“It’s ashame you had to pay all those taxes Sally. If only he had gotten to ‘I do’ before the heart attack”, Lawyer Dobbins remarked. “Actually, he did. Do you remember that trip we took to Washington, D.C. last fall?” Sally asked. “ Yes” replied the lawyer. “Here is the hotel registration, he listed us as Mr. and Mrs. Jack Jenkins at the Hyatt Hotel in D.C.. D.C. is a common-law marriage state and according to this legal opinion I got from a D.C. lawyer, we were married. He held me out as his wife. At that point I had been divorced from Beau. Please file the return claiming the spousal rights”, Sally asked. “That’s great news, they’ll be no taxes until you die, Sally”, the lawyer answered.

March 1, 2011

Brian Peterson was handed an estate tax return to review. It was for a guy named Jack Jenkins. He checked the assets, the appraisals, the arithmatic, and approved the return. He never questioned the marital deduction since there was a joint tax return on file for the last year of life of the decedent. He sent the file up for a closing letter and the return showed zero taxes due and owing. “I can see this guy did no planning. He left everything to his wife”, he thought.

WRITER’S COMMENT. This is one of those stories that as I started writing it, took on a life of its own and I could have had it go on for a few more weeks and probably will continue to write on this tale off-line. Clearly the moral here is that when the Government creates an incentive by handing out money, some evil minded people are going to try and get the money. Tomorrow a new tax tale on a different tax topic.