Reddit mentions: The best tax law books

I would also advise you to be aware of what's going through their capital accounts. For a partnership there are technically three sets of capital accounts: 704(b) ('book' per the code), book per the books (GAAP ideally), and then tax capital. Those could potentially all be different, especially if it was property that was contributed to start the partnership. A partnership is basically a big exercise in tracking capital accounts.

As for what you need, as Hitemup27 said, you'll need a set of financials. Last year's return is also reasonable to ask for. That will give you the book sharing ratios, but you absolutely want the partnership agreement as well. That agreement is what dictates how the partnership operates and will give you your TAX sharing ratios. Those are the two most important pieces of information in my mind.

A partnership is a really complex tax beast, arguable the MOST complicated single return type (i.e. not a crazy corporate consolidation). There is a great book out there called the Logic of Subchaper K (http://www.amazon.com/The-Logic-Subchapter-Conceptual-Partnerships/dp/0314233644) that will help with understanding how a partnership operates.

Good luck!

If you can, buy the barbri course for 2Ls and watch the income tax course. It's super basic and will give you the gist of the concepts.


I second Chirelstein. When something in class didn't make sense, I referenced it. It's super cheap.

https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Income-Taxation-Concepts-Insights/dp/1599419378

Keep in mind, this will be income tax. There are other tax bases, like the consumption tax, the estate tax, etc.

The hardest part is reading the internal revenue code. Just note that the rules start out with a general rule at the top, then go into exceptions to the general rule. Of course, the whole point of the code is to know what is taxed as income, and what is not. Then you go on to figure out what is deductible or not. And at the end, there are credits. These are all the questions that show up on your 1040 form.


I remember learning that there are basically four questions you ask in (income) tax:


What is taxable (what is taxable income + out of that income, what is deductible)

When it is taxable (when is the gain realized, the later the better)

How is it taxed (what rate, ordinary rate or at the better capital gains rate)

Whom is taxed (matters when a transaction looks like someone is shifting income to a lower tax bracket)

Just finished a law degree in England, so I can give you the resources I used. Webb and Akkouh's book on trusts is relatively short and quite a good introduction. Parker and Mellow's book goes into more detail, but is older, so a bit outdated in parts. I never used Virgo's book but it was recommended to me by quite a few people. If you want the "authoritative" textbook then you'll probably want Megarry and Wade, but it's rather dense and may be too much for your purposes.

There have been a few pretty influential trusts cases in the past couple of years (including a rather important one overturning 120 years of law just this morning!) so you won't just be able to rely on any of these books absolutely, but I assume you're familiar with this if you're doing a masters.

What textbook are you using?
My current Income Tax class is using " Graetz & Schenk, “Federal Income Taxation — Principles and Policy,” 8th Edition, Foundation Press (2018)"

I would HIGHLY recommend : Federal Income Taxation (Concepts and Insights) 14th Edition
This supplement reflects the 2017 changes in the tax code and follows the Graetz textbook very closely. I prefer E&E's generally but given my Fed Income tax course focuses heavily on the 2017 changes, this is best supplement currently available. =) Hope the recommendation helps!

​

I am a JD/MBA from a T14 law school with several years of practice experience. Your ad hominem attacks are far too typical of the Reddit community in general -- which prompted my username. I am a bitter JD [juris doctor] because any and all attempts of offering sound legal advice on the Internet are greeted with entrenched ignorance from people who have no idea what they are talking about.

"You don't understand how itemized deductions work, they either qualify or they don't. Accountants don't have some secret knowledge of what does or doesn't trigger an audit."

This is patently false. The thing about the Internal Revenue Code is it is intentionally vague. Businesses and the affluent who lobby Congress invest millions annually preserving said vagueness for the sole reason of saving money through loopholes and embraced utilized ambiguity in the event of an audit so as too avoid liability.

When I first studied federal income tax, I had to effectively memorize this 2.2 lbs, 777 page case book on tax loopholes and exceptions.

Consider 26 USC 213 (d) -- the medical care itemized deduction.

"(d) Definitions
For purposes of this section—
(1) The term “medical care” means amounts paid—
(A) for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body,
(B) for transportation primarily for and essential to medical care referred to in subparagraph (A),
(C) for qualified long-term care services (as defined in section 7702B (c)), or
(D) for insurance (including amounts paid as premiums under part B of title XVIII of the Social Security Act, relating to supplementary medical insurance for the aged) covering medical care referred to in subparagraphs (A) and (B) or for any qualified long-term care insurance contract (as defined in section 7702B (b))."

Assume an individual gets weekly therapeutic massages amounting to several thousand dollars per annum. Are these a deduction under the aforementioned code section? What does it mean to "affect any structure or function of the body?" These are rhetorical questions, if it is not obvious.

Anyhow, this demonstrates that you are objectively wrong with regard to itemized deductions "either qualify[ing] or they don't." Lawyers and accountants help with the ambiguity.

If your next response isn't an apology, I am done speaking with you. I work 100 hour weeks, and quite frankly trying to help you is going to unnecessarily elevate my blood pressure.

EDIT: Just realized I'm talking to someone who unethically took government subsidized education loans and invested in a quasi-legal digital currency in which he doesn't think is taxable. My goodness.

I really like Andreas antonopoulos’ The Internet of Money Series. I support him on patreon too and have learned a ton there. https://www.patreon.com/aantonop
Jimmy Song’s programming bitcoin just came out and is good!
I also used Pamela Morgan’s cryptoasset inheritance planning to make sure my crypto is secure and my family will get it if something happens to me.

I've been working on these issues for a few years now and I've published a book: Cryptoasset Inheritance Planning: a simple guide for owners. It's available all around the world on amazon in paperback, kindle, and soon audiobook. https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116/

I've also published a bunch of free how-to guides that might interest you: http://medium.com/@pamelawjd or https://empoweredlaw.com/

Hope this helps!

I haven't read it, but seeing this book mentioned in a very positive light in the bitcoin space, which might be helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116/

Pamela Morgan wrote a book about how to do it:

https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116

Please note that you don't ONLY have to make sure that your keys aren't lost, you also have to make sure that whoever inherits it either knows how to manage things or at least doesn't get ripped off by whoever you designate to help, and also that whoever inherits does so in a way that the law recognizes as legal.

Do be aware that tax-wise, "step up basis" is your great and wonderful friend. Your heirs won't owe any taxes as long as the amount is under whatever limit your government sets (IIRC, federally, it's five million dollars in the U.S., but that may have changed or I may be mistaken -- also note that states vary).

If you have a lot, talk to a lawyer to make sure you handle it properly. Politicians love to bloviate about how they're going to "fix the system" but the reality is that nobody pays estate taxes unless they don't ever plan on how to manage things. For example, James Gandolfini fucked up royally, never planned on croaking, and so his estate ended up paying millions in totally unnecessary taxes, all because he was stupid. If he'd set up a trust, his heirs would have paid zero in taxes.

Pamela Morgan wrote a fantastic book about crypto inheritance planning. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1947910116/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_1947910116

We interviewed her on The Tatiana show that I co host. List of good tips and an important subject that most don't think about.
https://youtu.be/yAE7zrIJVhA

Chirelstein's Federal Income Taxation Supplement is really helpful. He manages to cram a lot of great information into a very approachable book.

Looking for these two books, $5 each pp or venmo

Gerry W. Beyer
Examples & Explanations: Wills Trusts & Estates
6th Edition
ISBN-13: 978-1454850052, ISBN-10: 1454850051
https://www.amazon.com/Examples-Explanations-Wills-Trusts-Estates/dp/1454850051/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509985796&sr=1-1&keywords=wills+and+estates+e+and+e


Peter Wendel
Emanuel Law Outlines: Wills, Trusts, and Estates Keyed to Dukeminier and Sitkoff
9th Edition
ISBN-13: 978-1454830320, ISBN-10: 1454830328
https://www.amazon.com/Emanuel-Law-Outlines-Estates-Dukeminier/dp/1454830328/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509985796&sr=1-2&keywords=wills+and+estates+e+and+e

Hold your horses there buddy, I'm on your side. But since you seem like a feisty, *competent up-and-comer, maybe you would like to be paid tons of money? Just master these and you too can make money in the great, homestead haven of Texas:
Property Code 688pg.
Probate Code 327pg.
State Tax Code 2389pg.
That's not including Federal Banking Regs, Federal Tax Code, or case law that really governs foreclosure sales.

My point is really this: real estate transactions are not simple endeavors, and believe it or not the people completing these transactions are humans. Humans with families, distractions, hangovers, and Reddit browsing to share their attention with. Humans that make errors the more complicated the transaction gets. Good news is there's a remedy for most of these that doesn't involve a court or ridiculous attorney's fees.

Thanks a lot, much appreciated.

https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116

Our professor gives us "assessments" and one of them was on RAP. I used this and it explained it pretty well.

I'm sure your library has it, but yeah I would say just grab all the books you can at the library and just dive right in.

Relevant: https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116



Excellent book to help plan beyond just your own access to your hard hodl’d funds.

Besides the E&E, this supplement was very helpful. It's literally a book of flowcharts.

https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Income-Tax-Logic-Maps/dp/0314268995/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539859452&sr=1-1&keywords=federal+income+tax+logic+maps

I also recommend using Bloomberg Tax. Search by IRC provision and go to "related content" for basically everything you'd ever want to know about a given provision. They also have transactional diagrams of many of the cases you'll likely read.

^The linked tweet was tweeted by @pamelawjd on Mar 28, 2018 01:56:06 UTC (280 Retweets | 795 Favorites)

-------------------------------------------------

Friends. My new book: Cryptoasset Inheritance Planning: a simple guide for owners is now available for presale on Amazon. I can hardly believe I'm finally tweeting this!!!

https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116/

#bitcoin #ethereum #cryptoassets #inheritance

-------------------------------------------------

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It's merely my favourite book, a total page turner from start to end. The 12th edition is particularly wonderful.

Rule of Proof:

1. Name all the interests and notice the contingent or executory interests
   
   
2. Name all the lives in being
   
   
3. Give birth to afterborns or widows
   
   
   
4. Kill all the lives in being
   
   
5. Add 21 years
   
   
6. Is there ANY possibility of remote vesting? If yes, the clause is VOID ab initio, at the creation of the clause.
   
   
   Example: Jee v. Audley:
   Grant: A to wife for life, then to M and the issue of her body, but if M's issue fails, then to the daughters of J and E then living.
   It is possible that Mary's issue will not fail until much more than 21 years after all persons living at the time of the will have died. Therefore, the "But If" portion is void and the grant reads: A to wife for life, then to M and the issue of her body
   
   It's hard to convey with one example. If you have the time, this workbook by Raymond Coletta takes you through everything you need to know about estates and future interests including RAP with 100+ examples. You can go through the entire thing and a couple of days and by then end you'll have everything mastered or at least close to it. As a bonus, his use of character names from South Park in his hypos makes things a little less dry.
   
   Edit: combined posts

I don't know if you've been using this, but I highly recommend the Income Tax Map:

https://www.amazon.com/Income-Tax-Map-Birds-Eye-Taxation/dp/1640201122/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YNNCTTC8362MDGDQWF73

We are using this book for the main textbook in my partnership class this summer. I would also recommend reading "The Logic of Subchapter K" which is a short book meant to help explain these often confusing concepts.

Hahahah. Yeah, sorry I don't have time to open "the tax book" and learn the tax code so I can take advantage loopholes. Especially when it takes entire firms to apply it correctly.

A very good book about cryptocurrency inheritance with step to step guide from Pamela is https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116

I found this Federal Income Tax Map very helpful. It gives you the bigger picture, and a decent amount of detail.

https://www.amazon.com/Income-Birds-Eye-Federal-Taxation-Students/dp/1634607813/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492442300&sr=1-1&keywords=the+income+tax+map

Not if you are thinking of putting your private keys in a gmail account.

Maybe, if you are thinking of this as a part of a more comprehensive system.

But again, not if this could be a single point of failure, like in "google changes their policy because of some reason, and your plan is screwed"

If you are interested in planning this, kudos to you!

I suggest this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116/

The author has several interesting articles, for example here:

https://medium.com/@pamelawjd

I used this review. I passed all 3 exams the first time, so feel like it helped. I did not have any previous tax experience.

Also, this might be a better question for /r/taxpros

What's more, if you're in a great hurry to verify that the pages in these books have actual words on them, you can (with an unfortunate exception) download them. Also by that link, and as a more compact sample: The Government's Magic Bond.

And: he wrote the forward to Minns' How To Survive the IRS

Cryptoasset Inheritance Planning: A Simple Guide for Owners https://smile.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116/

Savvy Estate Planning

https://www.amazon.com/Savvy-Estate-Planning-Before-Lawyer-ebook/dp/B0773GKY89/ref=nodl_

Here is a book https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116 and some articles https://medium.com/@pamelawjd by Pamela Morgan on cryptoasset inheritance planning.

Pamela Morgan on Inheritance Planning for Crypto-Assets

This book saved my ass on Future Estates

https://www.amazon.com/Possessory-Estates-Interests-American-Casebook/dp/0314183698

https://btc-help.lima-city.de/inheritance/index.html

also

https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116

also

> to lose, verb.

> loose, adj.