TAX, ATTACKS AND COUNTERATTACKS: Your Indispensable Guide to Long-Range Tax Strategy

by Richard A. & Alan H. Neff Westin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 1983

A breezy pitch for tax planning that inventories rather than probes some of the more obvious possibilities for limiting IRS liabilities and obligations. Westin and Neff--both of whom are associated with Chicago-Kent College of Law--rest their case on ten unexceptionable principles, which amount to: balancing year-to-year tax rates by deferring or accelerating income and deductions; establishing ""symbiotic relationships"" with lower-bracket individuals (minor children, retirees); minimizing ordinary income while maximizing capital-gains and tax-free revenues. Within this framework, they survey the tax-tip waterfront from individual retirement accounts and Keogh Plans through annuities, municipal bonds, the advantages of home ownership, investment credits, accelerated depreciation, and shelter vehicles (characterized as ""gilded treadmills""). Though sketchy overall, Westin and Neff do urge caution. (Re income averaging, they suggest dry runs with a Schedule G and prior-year returns before anticipated windfalls become realities; the so-called family estate trust, they warn, is a discredited dodge that will land users in ""a boiling pot of Audit Soup."") They give short shrift to provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of consequence to securities investors, however, and disregard altogether the tax aspects of commodity and financial futures. Also scanted are the mechanics of filling out and filing federal returns. An amiable advisory, then, for novice tax planners; those in search of comprehensive, systematic counsel will be better served by Robert Garber's The Only Tax Book You'll Ever Need (p. 1320, 1982).

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION