BLOG FOR JOHN SWEENEY - ELDER, WILLS, ESTATES, TRUSTS, SPECIAL NEEDS, BUSINESS, & TAX LAWYER IN CT AND NY

You have a normal retirement age under Social Security which depends upon when you were born, but for most of us, it will be 66 to 67.  At that age you get your “normal” Social Security amount. When to Collect […]

People and lawyers are trying to figure out if a person can choose to die if they get dementia or Alzheimer’s and it is getting a little controversial. Generally, you cannot direct your proxy or medical staff to end your […]

In the past, if you were an insurance agency and you wanted to sell insurance in multiple states, you had to go and apply in every state.  The process was costly, time consuming and crazy.  It could take years and […]

On March 10, 2015 a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2015 with the aim of giving states the ability to collect sales taxes from all retailers in return for simplifying their laws. Many believe the states are […]

Ever wonder why GE manages to have  a tax rate of 2% and you pay 35%. Why your taxes are high and the big multinational corporations pay less and less? The answer is simple.  The big companies shift their profits […]

1. The Machine.  The IRS reviews most returns by computer.  They give returns numeric scores based on certain items which may be high, out of line, or questionable.   They have an algorithm which can identify the returns which have […]

There is a new way to fund your retirement…report people who are not paying their taxes to the IRS. The IRS Whistle blower Office pays up to 30% for information on under reporting of taxes.  This is actually big business.  […]

Nursing homes are increasingly aggressive against children and others who received gifts or money from their parents. The concept is that if you take money from anyone who then winds up in a nursing home on Medicaid (the government), the […]

Tomorrow, there will be a 30% withholding penalty on any overseas payments to financial institutions that don’t share information with the IRS. So far, 77,000 financial institutions have agreed to share information and the IRS has entered into information sharing […]

In Connecticut, a Nursing home runs you about $12K if you private pay (more like $15K in Fairfield County).  If you are on Medicaid, the state pays the nursing home only about $7K. This is why the nursing home operators […]