Checklist for 2018 and New Tax Regime
News & Blog
Jan 31, 2018
As the realities of the new tax law are being discovered, we’ve selected those we feel either have the biggest impact or are necessary to take action on as soon as possible for the benefit and protection of your family’s estate and business interests.
- Evaluating your children’s Health Care Directives, HIPAA authorizations and Durable Powers of Attorney. They may not have much, but at 18 you cease having access to their information by virtue of being a child’s parent. Therefore, a part of the checklist before children age out of your legal case, is to set up these documents. Many of our clients have them executed in both the state they are planning to attend college and in CA, their home state. These are low cost documents that allow mom and dad to step in if a child is ever in an accident or cannot speak for him or herself. Additionally, some families may need to have other powers of attorney executed for at-home affairs that may need children’s signature while they are away at college or abroad.
- Evaluate any contracts that may need to be re-negotiated or have adjustments made between entities, especially when you are wholly owned or have the majority interest in one entity.
- Review your estate planning documents and the titling of the assets owned in your trust. Refinancing and account transfers may cause unintentional transfer of title back into individual names, something that should be periodically checked. Additionally, estate planning documents may need to be updated for changes in heart, divorce, children coming of age, larger estate size, death of trustees or beneficiaries and even for changes in the law. Many of our clients are coming in to simplify their estate plan based on the new $11.2 million ($22.4 million per couple) exemption, which can greatly reduce stress and save administrative costs in the future.
- Formalize your business structure by converting it into an “organized entity” rather than a sole proprietorship or general partnership. Its best to do this at the beginning of the year or you may file after 12/15 of every year and not have to pay the CA FTB $800 annual fee for the current year. Contrary to the modern trend to form Limited Liability Companies or S-Corporations, you may want to closely evaluate the benefits of forming a traditional C-Corp under the new tax regime.
- Updating your annual meeting minutes, unanimous written consents and other business documents that help memorialize significant events and ratifies individuals further of company business. This important step also helps prevent personal liability of business owners and managers by bolstering the argument that the structure is not just a veil for your personal pocket book under a legal theory called piercing the corporate veil.
- Building owners/occupants should evaluate getting a cost-segregation analysis. A “cost segregation” study identifies and reclassifies personal property assets to shorten the depreciation time for taxation purposes, which reduces current income tax obligations.
- File your Statement of Information with the Secretary of State and update any changes to officers, directors and the principal place of business. This can be done quickly and easily online. If you have an LLC then you are only required to file this bi-annually, not annually.
- New legislation of the Affordable Housing and Jobs Act, which became effective January 1, 2018, mandates County Recorders to charge an additional $75 per recording Title per transaction (up to a maximum of $225) at the time of recording on every qualifying real estate instrument, paper, or notice except on any real estate instrument, paper or notice recorded in connection with a transfer subject to a documentary transfer tax, or in connection with the transfer of a real property that is a residential dwelling to an owner-occupier. See below for more information on this topic.
- Beginning July 1, 2017, the State Board of Equalization was be broken into two agencies. One department will collect taxes and the other will hear disputes from taxpayers. Taxpayers who want to contest decisions from the administrative judges would have to file lawsuits against the State in civil court. For now, the BOE website and resources are functional. Expect to see changes implemented throughout this year.
Contact the experienced trust and estate planning attorneys at NM Law, APC (949-253-0000) to go over the necessary action items that are right for you.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to provide a general summary of laws in the State of California and should not be construed as a legal opinion nor a complete legal analysis of the subject matter. Noelle Minto is an attorney at NM Law, APC in Tustin, California, a law firm specializing in Trusts & Estates and Business Transactions.
Testimonials
Vey helpful with good insight to take the proper steps with difficult situations and have my questions answered. Noelle and her team are professional and courteous and great to work with!
Samantha and the team are professional compassionate and get the job done. She articulates very well what needs to be done. Her and the firm do Probate and Trust at its finest to protect their clients. She is a valuable asset for me to source out to my clients as a strategic referral partner. Protecting family asset is essential and I recommend Samantha and her team for all your probate and trust needs.
I was referred to NM Law after dealing with a myriad of problems in settling a complicated Trust in Riverside County. At the initial meeting, Noelle Minto and Samantha Smith listened to the mess I was in and answered the questions I had. They provided me with information regarding my duties as a Trustee, made me aware of important dates that were upcoming, important dates already missed, and devised a plan to settle the Trust while protecting me, personally. When I left the first meeting, I felt that I was in good hands.John Schroeder was brought on to work on my case with Samantha and they updated/collaborated with Noelle. Noelle, Samantha and John are all patient, direct and very personable. Their knowledge and professionalism are exceptional. NM Law was successful in achieving a Settlement Agreement under difficult circumstances amongst people with little trust in one another. Thankfully we did not have to bear the cost of going to trial, however, I have complete confidence that NM Law would have prevailed if we had.I highly recommend NM Law. I look forward to working with them again, but this time to plan my estate.
Love this firm. I’ve worked on a wide range of legal issues with NM law, and the attorneys here are top notch, reasonably priced, and a pleasure to work with. They truly care about each of their clients and they made me feel confident each step of the way. Truly professional. They resolved a range of issues with me through strong legal counsel and I will continue to work with them for years to come.
Ms. Minto,I want to thank you and your staff for the courtesy extended to us during our family's pending emergency deadline.Mr. O'Grady spoke to my brother and gave us his best recommendation regarding my father's estate.It is really hard to speak, and even harder to "plan" generational wealth with a parent in terms of assets, intentions, and mortality, but it is a necessary conversation to have, if only to lessen the unfairness of life that eventually catches up to all of us.Our family tried to bring justice to my father's death within this probate process and found no justice, this system must be changed, so that a fairness is inherit within this system and not just a scam—lots of hard lessons to be learned from a broken probate process.In either case, thank you again for giving our family the attention and direction we sought. The adage is true, not all lawyers are the same. Looking forward to working with your office in the near future, as we don't want to repeat this experience with our Mom.Gracias,Abraham
NM Law is an excellent law firm to work with! Noelle and her team are very thorough and knowledgeable. They explained the estate planning process to us and kept us informed every step of the way.We highly recommend NM Law for your estate planning needs.
I have worked with many attorneys, and there are very few that I would ever recommend. Noelle and her team have gone above and beyond to help all of our clients that we have referred to her. There is no one else that I would recommend for estate planning in the area.
I was first referred to Noelle Minto by my family law attorney Mike Monarch to provide oversight on my husband’s Trust conforming with our Post Marital Agreement. Her outstanding legal insights helped me to feel secure that both documents were in alignment. These interactions caused me to hire Noelle Minto to create a restatement of my own trust (1999) to be more relevant and reflect my current financial portfolio. Her professional guidance was outstanding. Noelle was always available, friendly, insightful, and mindful of my needs. I would even say highly intuitive. She certainly expanded my knowledge of wealth distribution. I also valued the Law firm’s entire team. Edward was delightful to work with as well. I highly recommend Noelle Minto and her knowledgeable legal team for their exceptional legal services on Family and individual Trusts. I will be making referrals to my friends in the future.
Noelle and Samantha and their team are amazing. They are extremely knowledgeable and professional (they are the best). They have and continue to support me and my family while dealing with my parents Will and Trust. Samantha is very patience with all my questions.I highly recommend NM Law.
My wife and I went to Noelle to update our 36 year old family trust. Since our trust was so old she rewrote our trust and wills in their entirety. We have a large family with kids, daughters-in-laws, and 13 grandkids. So it was a complex task. She spent plenty of time with us making sure every detail was exactly the way we wanted, and had some good ideas that we liked. And her assistant, Tatiana, was very helpful. Noelle did an excellent job and we are very pleased and confident that we now have everything in proper order.
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We dedicate pro bono time, volunteer services, and a percentage of our gross revenue to these organizations. In 2023, we sponsored a refugee family of five to come to the United States and start a new life.
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