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Martha Stewart isn't hurting for money. She hired lawyers to represent her at her trial, and her attorneys succeeded in getting the judge to drop the most serious charges against her before trial. She got a fair trial and a jury convicted her. She has the money to hire an attorney to seek...

No, not in Colorado (or most other states). You'd need to persuade the DA to reopen the case. That's usually going to take coming up with new evidence that the DA does not already have. DAs in Colorado don't close murder cases due to costs like they do for some minor offenses. The primary reason...

The odd thing is that crimes committed with guns often don't get a huge payoff, certainly not enough to be worth the kind of prison sentence armed robbery or murder will get them. The smart crooks today use e-mail, text messages, phones, and snail mail to pull off scams to the unwary. They make...

The smart ones do obey the tax law. Sure, it means they give a slice of their ill gotten gains to the IRS, but it also eliminates the prospect of prison for evading tax. As Al Capone famously found out, he was able to keep the FBI from getting enough evidence to charge him with a crime, but the...

If she gets any of that pension after conviction. Between restitution orders, fines, and IRS tax levies, there might not be anything left for her to use from her pension. While pensions are protected from attachment for most debts, they may be attached for criminal fines, criminal restitution...

As a first offense, and considering that she's likely going to enter into a plea agreement for the charges (her cooperation suggests she doesn't dispute she took the money) my prediction is she won't get a sentence anywhere close to 142 years. It'll be a long sentence, but it may provide her a...

That's one possibility, though in that case I would expect the fund management firm to issue a 1099-INT for it.

Exactly what kind of investment is it and what kind of company is paying it? It's very likely that the interest is indeed taxable but I don't have a clear idea of what this investment is.

Bear in mind, though that $600K in 1992 would have the same buying power today after inflation of $1.3 million dollars. Not a lot of the public in 1992 died with over $600k after deducting the marriage deduction (if married at the time of death) gifts to charitable institutions, etc. With good...

Color and B&W photos are not the same. People see things differently in color than B&W. Some details may be easier to see in one format or the other. You need to provide to the other copies of exactly what you intend to offer as evidence. If you don't, then at least in my state (which is not CA)...

What do you mean by an "estate deed"? Do you simply mean that you were added to the deed as an owner of the house or is there more to it than that? And how is the house titled: tenants in common or joint tenants with a right of survivorship? Divorce does not change the basis in property...

The piece, which is an advatorial, is generally correct about what Rev. Rul. 2023-2 says, but makes it seem like a much bigger deal than it is. I'll first note that the ruling is not the result of a recent significant change in the view of IRS counsel. When I was an attorney at IRS counsel that...

Unfortunately a pretty accurate observation. It also didn't take me long to see that many of the 1Ls were simply not interested in doing the hard needed to become a truly good attorney. About one-third of the 1Ls in my class didn't make it back for the second year, and for most the reason they...

Lawyers have bills to pay like everyone else. Working for free is not a good way to pay those bills. One can be passionate about defending the Constitution and still want to earn at least a decent living for the work he or she does.Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Some of Trump's...

That advice from the accountant concerns me. Is the accountant a tax accountant, as in having a master's degree in tax and/or extensive experience in tax? When you expect to get a refund, you must file the return within three years of the date the return was due or within two years of the date...

And then there are those attorneys who will work knowing they'll get stiffed, like those that have represented former President Trump. Just because someone is an attorney doesn't automatically mean the person is bright or has much common sense.

Publication 971 simply provides you the information on the three different forms of relief: innocent spouse, separation of liability, and equitable relief. It will help you determine which of those is most appropriate at this point and what you need to do to apply. If the returns involved were...

How is it a partnership if only one member benefits? If the goal is for only one person to control the LLP then the usual approach to that is to form a second entity owned by the individual that then is a partner in the LLP. For example, John might form John's Holding Company LLC, of which he...

Did your accountant file only for innocent spouse relief or was equitable relief also requested? In the situation you described if you signed the joint return with the self-employment income included on it, then innocent spouse relief normally wouldn't be granted because you knew of the problem...

Customs and Border Protection (CBP)'s FOIA page allows you to make the request online, which will be the fastest way to get a response to your request. If you don't want your request to get bogged down and take forever to process, I recommend you specify as clearly as a possible the exact...