California TAX ATTORNEY

Challenging California Wills In Any Probate Court, Including Los Angeles

Want to contest a California Will? Do you believe the terms of the Will should not be enforced? A Will can be contested and invalidated for a variety of reasons, not all of which are included here.

Undue Influence. Although there are several tests for undue influence, it boils down to a confidential relationship between the testator (will drafter) and the influencer and suspicious circumstances. Suspicious circumstances can be shown by procurement of a will, secrecy, no independent advice by the testator (person who executes the will), an unnatural or unjust gift, susceptibility to influence, haste in the signing of the will, or a change in attitude.

Menace. Menace is essentially blackmail. Menace can be shown by threat of unlawful and violent injury to the person, property or character of any person and will invalidate a will if it was used to coerce a transfer or prevent someone from changing a testamentary document.

The testator may lack capacity. In California, the person must be 18 years of age and of sound mind. The fact situations are often varied, but often the person does not understand the nature of the testamentary act sometimes because of dementia, or lacks the ability to recall the nature of the individual’s property.

Fraud. Fraud may be actual or constructive. Actual fraud generally can be intentional if a person tells a lie, suppresses a fact, or makes a promise without intent to perform. Constructive fraud is a breach of a duty with fraudulent intent to gain advantage to another’s prejudice.

Duress. Although the rule is stated differently in California, duress may invalidate a will if a transfer is obtained after the wrongdoer threatened to perform or did perform a wrongful act that coerced the donor into making a donative transfer that the donor would not otherwise have made.

Mistake. It is hard to show that a mistake will invalidate a will or part of a will, but under certain circumstances it may be possible to prove.

Have other questions, call a probate lawyer; call Mitchell A. Port at (310) 559-5259.

New Types Of Business Entities

Attention California business owners: A Restricted LLC (limited liability company) and a Restricted LP (limited partnership) are special entities that will be allowed under Nevada law starting October 1, 2009. Nevada is the first and only state to allow these types of entities.

With a restricted LLC, the new statute imposes restrictions and limitations on the LLC's ability to make distributions. The statute provides, in part, that unless otherwise provided in the articles of organization, a restricted LLC shall not make any distributions to its members with respect to their membership interests until ten years after the date of formation of the LLC (or amendment of the articles of an existing LLC to become a restricted LLC), so long as the LLC has remained a restricted LLC.

Why set up an LLC which by its charter may not make any distributions to members for up to ten years? The reason is Internal Revenue Code Section 2704(b), which provides that when valuing an interest in an entity for gift tax purposes, the liquidation restrictions contained within the LLC operating agreement have to be disregarded by the appraiser if the LLC is owned by family members both before and after the transfer. Code Section 2704(b)(3)(B) provides however that a restriction that is imposed by state law cannot be ignored.

With these new entities, some appraisers provide a range of an additional 10% to 35% for the additional valuation discount. So, for example, if the valuation discount would have been 35% for a regular LLC, after adding the additional valuation discount, the valuation discount would instead be between 45% and 70%.

Remember that the new Nevada Restricted LLC and LP statutes only create a new ceiling on valuation discounts that no other state allows. This doesn't mean that you must lock the underlying assets in for ten years. Maybe five years is more appropriate. Maybe three years.

The Bill can be read online. The Restricted LLC language can be read in Sections 26 and 27 of the Bill. The Restricted LP language can be read in Sections 38, 39 and 49.2 of the Bill.

California IOUs: Use It To Pay Taxes

On July 7, 2009, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) announced payment of current and past due personal and corporate taxes with California registered warrants (IOUs) is acceptable

By law, FTB cannot deposit the IOU until it is payable, but FTB will credit your account on the date the IOU is received to stop the accrual of interest. If the IOU is not sufficient to pay the outstanding balance, you should send an additional payment for the difference.

LEMONLAW

Lemon laws are American state laws that provide a remedy for purchasers of cars that repeatedly fail to meet standards of quality and performance. These cars are called lemons. The federal lemon law (the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act) protects citizens of all states. State lemon laws vary by state and may not necessarily cover used or leased cars. The rights afforded to consumers by lemon laws may exceed the warranties expressed in purchase contracts. Lemon law is the common nickname for these laws, but each state has different names for the laws and acts.

In California, lemon laws cover anything mechanical, as do the federal lemon laws. The federal lemon law also provides that the warranter may be obligated to pay the prevailing party's attorney fees in a successful lemon law suit, as do most state lemon laws.

Reason for Law's name

In the 1800s, people started using the word 'lemon' to describe people who were sour (or unfriendly). In American English the word was first recorded in 1909 in the slang sense of "worthless thing". time, 'lemon' came to refer to anything that was defective or broken or which breaks constantly, particularly a car.

Used car purchases

If you purchased a used car there are two situations in which you may be qualified for cash or other lemon law benefits:

Situation #1: You may be entitled to compensation for breach of warranty if you had one of the following warranties:

• Any warranty left from the manufacturer when you purchased your vehicle (for example, almost all vehicles sold with fewer than 36,000 miles will have this. But if the warranty is longer, you may have even more time).
• Your vehicle was "Certified" by the Manufacturer (in which case it came with a short Manufacturer's Warranty, typically 1 year).
• You purchased an Extended Warranty backed by the Manufacturer (typically 5 years or longer).

Normally, these types of cases fall outside the scope of the state lemon law but are covered under special federal lemon laws.

Situation #2: When No Manufacturer's Warranty Exists If you do not have a manufacturer's warranty of any kind you may be entitled to compensation for violations of consumer protection laws that fall outside of the lemon laws. The following is a list of some of the problems and/or issues which may be present in your vehicle.

• Prior history of mechanical problems known to the seller: Laundered Lemon.
• Previously salvaged or wrecked.
• Fraudulently rolled back odometer.
• Rental car, police car, taxi, or similar.
• Stolen, stripped and rebuilt.
• Involved in a flood.

Lemon Laws vary from state to state, so accurate information on the scope and restrictions of Lemon Laws in a particular state should be obtained

Other lemon laws

Lemon laws are not limited to cars. There are RV lemon laws, boat lemon laws, motorcycle, wheelchair, and computer lemon

Canada

The Canadian Motor Vehicle Arbitration Plan Canada - Canadian Motor Vehicle Arbitration Plan is the dispute resolution program for consumers in Canada that have problems with the assembly of their vehicle or with how the manufacturer implements its new vehicle warranty. CAMVAP covers new or used owned or leased vehicles that are from the current model year and up to an additional four model years old.

CAMVAP is an arbitration program. It is free to consumers. Hearings are held in the consumer's home community. The process normally takes less than 70 days from start to finish. Most consumers are able to handle their own case without the assistance of lawyers. The manufacturers do not use lawyers. Their representatives usually are serving or retired district parts and services representatives. An inspection of the vehicle normally is part of an arbitration hearing and the arbitrator can order a technical inspection of the vehicle at the program's expense if doing so is required.

CAMVAP arbitrators can order the manufacturer to buyback the vehicle; repair it at the manufacturer's expense; pay for repairs already completed; pay out of pocket expenses for items such as towing, diagnostic testing, rental cars and accommodation related to the problem with the vehicle. The arbitrator can also order that the manufacturer has no liability.

CAMVAP is available in every Canadian Province and Territory.