President Donald Trump has developed a proposal to rewrite the tax code in such a way that it may render the mortgage interest deduction meaningless for all but a small minority of wealthy homeowners. Opponents argue that this provision would take away an important incentive of homeownership;
Investment Property & the Personal Residence Exclusion
Contrary to what many may suppose, the initial purpose underlying the acquisition of a property does not necessarily bar future invocation of the principal residence exclusion (under IRS section 121). As we've discussed earlier, Section 121 of the Internal Revenue Code allows homeowners to exclude
The Basics of Tenancy-in-Common Ownership Arrangements
Many of our clients are real estate owners and so in this installment of HTW we thought it beneficial to introduce the concept of tenancy-in-common ownership arrangements. A tenancy-in-common (TIC) is a form of joint ownership which involves multiple owners who share an undivided fractional interest
HTW Post-Season News & Upcoming Small Business Webcasts
Now that we're past our busiest part of the year, HTW is happy to announce that we'll be continuing our previous trend of bringing topical, high-quality material to our readers on a regular basis. HTW would like to continue examining the contours of the sixteenth amendment for a bit longer; the
The Will of the People
The phrase “the will of the people” has greater importance for Americans than it has for citizens of other states around the world. In large part, this stems from our deeply entrenched view of our system of government as a system which has developed entirely from the collective will of a free
Essential Points of the Principal Residence Exclusion
In our first essay on section 1031 we promised to explore other sections of the tax code – namely, 1033 and 121 – which may be of interest to our readers. As always with HTC, we are true to our word. In this essay we will discuss some of the basic facts of section 121. Section 121 is referred to as
The Basics of Inslee’s New Tax Plan
In the first half of this last December, Governor Jay Inslee proposed a new tax plan designed to generate funding for basic education. The plan is responsive to a recent state court opinion which held that funding for K-12 education in Washington must come from the state rather than local districts.
The Tariff Which Shook History
As has been noted previously, substantive changes in tax policy are often closely tied to big changes in the social order. And the tie is not unidirectional, resulting solely from a tendency for tax measures to provoke heated reaction from a population. Sometimes a social change – such as a war –