Are you a passive investor who isn’t directly involved in a project’s day-to-day operations, or do you materially participate in a business or rental activity in Maine? To help individuals classify income, gains and losses from activities as passive or nonpassive, the IRS has prescribed seven tests. The passive activity loss (PAL) rules have been around  Continue Reading »

Let’s say that Maine Delicious Lobster Company loses its contract to deliver lobster for its primary customer, Good Maine Sandwich Company. Furthermore, the contract loss was due to an alleged breach by Good Maine Sandwich Company. The lobster company sues the sandwich company for damages. Or wait, should Good Maine Sandwich Company sue for loss of business value?  Continue Reading »

Post-Confirmation Comm. for Small Loans, Inc. v. Martin, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44270 (March 31, 2016) A recent ruling in a complex bankruptcy case teaches that Daubert can accommodate differing views on determining solvency for multiple debtor entities. Consolidated vs. stand-alone basis A group of related family-run consumer lending and retail businesses filed for Chapter  Continue Reading »

Currently under the federal income tax rules, legal expenses incurred by individuals are typically not deductible. Instead, they’re most often treated as either part of the cost of acquiring an asset, such as real estate, or as personal outlays (which are nondeductible). In the acquiring asset situation, legal costs usually aren’t deductible right away; instead, they  Continue Reading »

The deadline for Maine individuals and C corporations to file their federal income tax returns for 2016 (or to file for an extension) was April 18. After all that digging and filling, you may be feeling the urge to purge. It’s important to make sure you won’t be caught empty-handed if an IRS auditor contacts  Continue Reading »

If a Maine employer purchases parking spots from a vendor and then charges employees for using them — via paycheck deductions — do the employees qualify for tax-free fringe benefit treatment? The employees in one case asked the IRS for an answer to this question. The IRS has issued an Information Letter and stated the arrangement doesn’t  Continue Reading »

Due to depreciation write-offs and other allowable deductions, Maine real estate owners who rent their properties often incur tax losses. However, the ability to deduct those losses might be postponed indefinitely by the passive activity loss (PAL) rules. In general, these rules limit deductions for rental property PALs to the amount of income that you have  Continue Reading »

Fish v. Greatbanc Trust Co., 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137351 (Sept. 1, 2016) In an important ESOP decision, the court dismissed claims that the defendants had committed breaches of fiduciary duty and engaged in a prohibited transaction. The case turned on the soundness of the fairness and valuation opinions a nationally recognized valuation firm had  Continue Reading »

Business valuations are prepared for many purposes Maine, including litigation, estate and gift tax, and the purchase or sale of a business. They can be an essential part of all of these things, and it is important to properly understand and utilize a valuation.  At Filler & Associates, we recommend that the reader critically review  Continue Reading »

If you have an authority over or interest in a foreign financial account, then the IRS wants you to provide information about the account by filing a form called the “Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts” (FBAR). The annual deadline for filing FBARs has been changed and now coincides with the tax filing deadlines  Continue Reading »