Estate Planning, Probate & Elder Law Attorneys

» John McCain and Tax Confusion

Recently (here) I had a post about the respective tax policies of Senators Obama and McCain. Slate has more on Senator McCain and taxes, here, although as the writer (Timothy Noah) makes clear, it's not easy to tell exactly what the Senator really thinks.

The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger goes even further on the subject of Senator McCain and taxes, here, in an article entitled "Is John McCain Stupid?" An excerpt:

Is John McCain losing it?

On Sunday, he said on national television that to solve Social Security "everything's on the table," which of course means raising payroll taxes. On July 7 in Denver he said: "Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't."

This isn't a flip-flop. It's a sex-change operation.

Mr. Henninger continues:

What I'm asking is, does John McCain have the mental focus, the intellectual discipline, to avoid being out-slicked by Barack Obama, if he isn't abandoned by his own voters?

» Estate of Hale: New Statutory Custodial Claim Case

I've written extensively, in this blog and on my website, about statutory custodial claims. These types of claims can be filed by family members if they meet certain requirements for the care of a decedent. The statutory language (which has recently been changed -- here is the new language) has always been pretty vague, which is part of the reason why we have the new 1st District case of Estate of Hale (here is the PDF).

This is the sort of legal opinion I like, as it answers specifically a number of questions surrounding statutory custodial claims:

1. How many years of care can be considered? As many years as care was provided (in this case, 9-1/2 years)

2. When does the statute of limitations for such a claim begin to run? Upon the decedent's death

3. Is the amount of the statutory custodial claim reduced by the amount of any fees the claimant received for acting as guardian of the decedent during his or her lifetime? No

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