Tax Lawyers Minneapolis

IRS Announces 2011 Standard Mileage Rates

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On December 3, 2010, Internal Revenue Service issued the 2011 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

Beginning on January 1, 2011, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

a) 51 cents per mile for business miles driven
b) 19 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes
c) 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

A taxpayer may not use the business standard mileage rate for a vehicle after using any depreciation method under the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) or after claiming a Section 179 deduction for that vehicle. In addition, the business standard mileage rate cannot be used for any vehicle used for hire or for more than four vehicles used simultaneously. Taxpayers also have the option of calculating the actual costs of using their vehicle rather than using the standard mileage rates.

Minneapolis Tax Lawyer | Tax Consequences of Selling a Structured Settlement

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Are your structured settlement payments taxable?

For federal income tax purposes, it is not relevant whether a plaintiff receives proceeds from a judgment or settlement. No matter how the result is reached, amounts received are characterized either as income, or are specifically excluded from income. Section 104 of the Internal Revenue Code generally excludes from gross income: amounts received as personal injury damage awards (to the extent that the damages are compensatory and not punitive); amounts received through accident or health insurance for personal injury or sickness; and amounts received as pension, annuity, or for personal injuries or sickness resulting from active service in the armed forces of any country. Punitive damages are almost always included in gross income. Essentially, judgments resulting from personal injury lawsuits and the like are meant to make a plaintiff whole and compensate them for something that they lost that was not income (e.g. loss of an arm), therefore any amount received in compensation of such an injury also must not be income.

If your settlement payments are not covered by Section 104, you need to determine if your structured settlement payments must be included in your income by considering the item that the settlement replaces. Business injury or non-personal injury judgments are generally regarded as gross income. Here are a few examples of judgments usually included in gross income: interest on any award; compensation for lost wages or lost profits in most cases; punitive damages (in most cases); pension rights (if you did not contribute to the plan); damages for patent or copyright infringement, breach of contract, or interference with business operations; and back pay and damages for emotional distress received to satisfy a claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Structured periodic payments for business injury judgments or settlements should generally be included as income to the extent that the payments fit under the definition above. With respect to the personal injury plaintiffs, Section 104 explicitly excludes from gross income periodic payments that are otherwise excluded from gross income. Portions of periodic payments specifically labeled as interest may not be excluded from gross income. If properly structured, personal injury settlement payments can be tax free generally irrespective of the number of years the payments continue.

A note of caution, the analysis above is very general and simplistic, even with respect to the examples provided above. You should consult your tax attorney to determine whether your settlement should be included in gross income pursuant to Section 104.

What happens if you sell your right to structured settlement payments for a lump sum?

The information above is very important to an original beneficiary of a structured settlement who may be interested in selling their right to receive structured settlement payments. This is because Section 104 still controls characterization of any lump sum payment received in return for transferring the right to structured settlement payments. The end result is that any lump sum payment you receive from selling your structured settlement payments is likely to have the same tax treatment as the payments under the structured settlement.

Therefore, if the current structured settlement payments you receive are tax free, then the money you receive from selling your payments are likely to be tax free. Conversely, if the current structured settlement payments you receive are are likely to be included in your income, then the money you receive from selling your right to payments are also likely to be included in your income.

Again, the exact determination of whether the proceeds from the sale of a structured settlement need to be included in the gross income should be made by a tax attorney. Only a tax professional is likely to have the expertise necessary to take into account all factors of your particular tax situation and conduct correct legal analysis.

Are there tax consequences for the company purchasing the right to your structured settlement payments?

Section 5891 of the Internal Revenue Code was added in 2002 to protect structured settlement payees/recipients that decide to sell the right to their structured settlement payments. Section 5891 requires the sale of structured settlement payments must be approved by a qualified court order in accordance with the relevant state statute. In Minnesota, the applicable state statute is Minn. Stat. §549.31 (2010).

Section 549.31 requires among other things that: the transfer is not unlawful; the transferee discloses certain facts to the payee in writing; the payee has established that the transfer is in the best interests of the payee and the payee’s dependents; the payee has received independent professional advice regarding the legal, tax, and financial implications of the transfer; the transferee has given written notice of the transferee’s name, address, and taxpayer identification number to the annuity issuer and the structured settlement obligor and has filed a copy of the notice with the court or responsible administrative authority; and that the transfer agreement provides that any disputes between the parties will be governed, interpreted, construed, and enforced in accordance with the laws of Minnesota and that the domicile state of the payee is the proper place of venue to bring any cause of action arising out of a breach of the agreement. The transfer agreement must also provide that the parties agree to the jurisdiction of any court of competent jurisdiction located in Minnesota.

If a sale of the right to payment under a structured settlement does not comply with Section 5891, then Section 5891 imposes on any person who acquires directly or indirectly structured settlement payment rights in a structured settlement factoring transaction a 40-percent excise tax.

Conclusion

Tax consequences of selling a structured settlement should be analyzed by a tax professional who will be able to conduct proper legal analysis based on the particular facts of your case. Sherayzen Law Office can help you analyze your case and provide an independent advice on the legal and tax consequences of the sale.  Call us to discuss your case with an experienced Minneapolis tax lawyer!

Capital Gains and Losses: Tax Implications for Individuals and C-Corporations

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Capital gains and losses defined

Capital gains and losses result from the taxable realized sale or exchange of capital assets. In general, capital assets include investments (such as stocks and real estate) and fixed assets, as opposed to personal-use property.

Capital gains result when the sale or exchange price is greater than the adjusted basis of the capital asset. Conversely, capital losses occur when the adjusted basis is higher than the sale or exchange price, and certain expenses associated with the sale may be added to the loss. The holding period of the capital asset being sold or exchanged will determine whether the capital gain or loss is long-term (held for more than a year) or short-term (held for less than a year).

Netting Capital Gains and Losses (Individual taxpayers)

Each taxable year, capital gains and losses are aggregated or “netted” on Schedule D. First, long-term capital gains and losses are netted. Second, short-term capital gains and losses are netted. Four possible scenarios will result from this two-step process:

Scenario A: A long-term gain and short-term gain
Scenario B: A long-term gain and short-term loss
Scenario C: A long-term loss and short-term gain
Scenario D: A long-term loss and short-term loss

In scenario A, the short-term gain will be taxed with the taxpayer’s ordinary income at his or her marginal rate. For the long-term capital gain, the favorable long-term capital gains tax rate will apply, depending upon the taxpayer’s tax bracket.

In scenario B, there are two possible outcomes depending upon which result is larger, the loss or the gain. If the short-term loss is greater than the long-term gain, a net short-term loss will result, and up to $3,000 can be used to offset other income, with additional amounts can be carried forward to subsequent tax years. Alternatively, if the long-term gain is larger than the short-term loss, then a net long-term gain will result, and the favorable long-term capital gains tax rates will apply.

In scenario C, there are two possible outcomes depending upon which result is larger, the loss or the gain. If the long-term loss is larger than the short-term gain, then a net long-term loss will result, and (as with scenario B) up to $3,000 can be used to offset ordinary income. Any unused amount above $3,000 can be carried forward to subsequent years as long-term loss. Alternatively, if the short-term gain is larger than the long-term loss, then a net short-term gain will result, and it will be taxed at the taxpayer’s marginal rate.

In scenario D, there are several possible outcomes. First, if the total long-term and short-term losses combined total $3,000 or less, then the amount may be used to offset ordinary income. However, if the total amount of short-term losses exceed $3,000, then the first $3,000 of short-term loss will be applied to offset other income, and any remainder will be carried forward to subsequent years as a long-term loss. If the short-term loss is less than $3,000, then that amount will be applied to offset ordinary income, and any amount of available long-term loss making up the difference between the short-term loss applied and $3,000 will also be used to offset ordinary income (with the additional, unused amounts carried forward).

Capital Gains and Losses (C Corporations)
C corporations, unlike individuals, do not receive favorable tax rate on capital gains. Capital gains must be included as part of ordinary income, in their entirety.

Further, capital losses must be used only to offset capital gains, and are non-deductible against ordinary income for C corporations. Net capital losses can be carried back to the three preceding years (and are applied in chronological order, beginning with the earliest tax year) provided the corporation has capital gains to offset. Additionally, corporate taxpayers may carry forward the capital loss five years from the year of loss, again provided that there are capital gains to offset. Carryforwards expire after the fifth year. Importantly, all losses carried back or forward are considered to be short-term.

Offsetting Capital Gains and Losses
Are you a taxpayer interested in benefiting from the capital gains and losses tax rules? Do you have questions about selling capital assets such as stocks or real estate for tax purposes, and how to best time your transactions in order to pay less taxes? Are you concerned about how new capital gains and loss tax changes may affect your situation?

Sherayzen Law Office can guide you with all of your capital gains and losses questions, and help you plan ahead so that you pay less taxes.

Call NOW to discuss your case with an experienced tax attorney!

October 15 Deadline for Extension Filers and Certain Non-Profit Organizations

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If you filed Form 4868 to request a six-month extension to file your tax return, beware that October 15, 2010 is the fast-approaching deadline to file your tax returns. The IRS expects to receive as many as ten million tax returns from such extension filers.

The other important group of filers are small nonprofit organizations at risk of losing their tax-exempt status because they failed to file the required tax returns for the past three tax years (2007, 2008, and 2009). Their one-time chance to preserve their tax-exempt status is to file the appropriate variation of the Form 990 with the IRS.

The IRS has posted on a special page on its website listing the names and last-known addresses of these at-risk organizations, along with guidance about how to come back into compliance. The organizations on the list have return due dates between May 17, 2010 and October 15, 2010, but the IRS has no record that they filed the required returns for any of the past three years.

Click here for more information about this unique one-time relief program.

This essay is provided as a courtesy notice by Sherayzen Law Office, Minnesota tax law firm for businesses and individuals.

IRS Interest Rates: 4th Quarter of 2010

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On August 19, 2010, the IRS announced that interest rates for the calendar quarter beginning October 1, 2010, will remain the same as follows:

1. Individual underpayment and overpayment: 4%;
2. Corporate overpayment: 3%
3. Large corporate underpayment: 6%
4. Portion of corporate overpayment exceeding $10,000: 1.5%

The interest rate is determined on a quarterly basis and compounds daily. For taxpayers other than corporations, the overpayment and underpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points. Generally, in the case of a corporation, the underpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points and the overpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 2 percentage points. The rate for large corporate underpayments is the federal short-term rate plus 5 percentage points. The rate on the portion of a corporate overpayment of tax exceeding $10,000 for a taxable period is the federal short-term rate plus one-half of a percentage point.

Interest factors for daily compound interest for annual rates of 1.5 percent, 3 percent, 4 percent, and 6 percent are published in Tables 8, 11, 13, and 17 of Rev. Proc. 95-17, 1995-1 C.B. 556, 562, 565, 567, and 571.