Taxation Law Books

The author keeps using the term "do this exactly as the IRS states... or your exchange will be toast". He gives explicit advice such as BUY the replacement property within the 45 day ("list") window after selling the old property (instead of the allotted 180 day window) to help ensure the acceptability of the tax-free exchange process. Good solid advice to save lots of money.

Great book. Puts exchange into easy to understand concepts. Also provides detail on more complicated exchanges. Helped me a lot!
Thanks

Real Estate has always been my favorite investment. Deferring Taxes is also good. The book - "Exchanging Up" ties both together. With the clearly written information therein, I have closed at least Three "1031" real estate transactions,without fear of any IRS confrontations. The book removes the mystery of Taxing Authority"s 1031 Provisions.

This is a great resource of information. I sell real estate and often work with customers doing 1031 Exchanges. I refer to this book often throughout many transactions.

I was already somewhat familiar with the material in the book. However we are using a 1031 to build another investment property. I gave my copy of the book to the builder as he was totally unfamiliar with 1031's and what we wanted to do. Gary's book brought the builder up to speed with what we are trying to do. It helped greatly in answering any of his questions and gaining confidence in the process we needed to go thru for the "Non-Safe Harbor Reverse 1031 Construction Exchange" we needed to do.

I have known and worked with Ardi Kolah for a number of years and have found no one with such an in-depth understanding of the legal side of marketing.

In today's highly litigious society, knowledge of what is permissible in marketing is essential, even more so given the complex regulatory framework in which organisations operate today.

This book is well written, easy to understand and is a must for any truly professional marketer.

I have known Ardi Kolah since he was an outstanding post graduate law student here at University College London. On the basis of that contact I am sure that Essential Law for Marketers is an exceptional book in terms of its content and clarity of writing. It is important that such a book be read by all law students who are interested in working within the creative industries and those who need a robust introduction to the way in which law has influenced this important sector.

Ardi Kolah has captured many of the substantial legal issues that marketers could face as regulation and compliance standards increase. This book offers clear explanations of relevant law, with examples and practical advice for maintaining marketing momentum.....

Ardi Kolah's Essential Law for Marketers has been written with the legal virgin in mind and that includes a surprising number of advertising practitioners who should at least have a basic knowledge of the laws governing their business. This book is full of practical tips and suggestions that will also be relevant to the seasoned campaign director and is sure to prove essential reading for anyone in the advertising industry who needs to get up to speed with this complex area.

If you want an intelligent overview of the application of the law for marketers, then this is it. It should have been around years ago ...

This book really helped my wife go through the probate process for her mother's estate. Highly recommended book!

This is a great book for going through the probate process. It takes
you through the entire process and explains all the jargon. The only
problem I had with it is that if your probate includes anything which
is a little out-of-the-ordinary, e.g., heirs/beneficiaries who may contest the will, it does not help. However, one book cannot cover 100% of
the possible cases. This book probably covers 95% of the probate cases
and is helpful even if you are one of the "odd-cases" and you are not familiar with the probate process.

If you can only purchase one book on probate in California, this book should be your first stop. I am in the process of probating my mother's estate and I will save at least $20,000 by using this book. There a dozens of forms, tips and tons of information on the subject. If you are motivated and organzed, this is the guide to help you avoid the high cost of attorneys in probate. I cannot urge you STRONGLY enough to use this book as your guide to probate in California.

My brother and I are in the process of probating my Mom's estate with the assistance of this excellent book by Nissley. It hops around a little bit, but all the information is between the covers. So far we have had zero problems. We have not had to consult with an attorney nor a paralegal to have our forms filed with the court. This book is going to save us time and money - about $5,000 on my Mom's small estate. Thank you Julia Nissley and Nolo Press!

After my mother passed away and I was named executor, I discovered something: California's probate system is a massive, elaborate joke designed to make lawyers rich. It's incomprehensible how convoluted the process is, and how absolutely ZERO help is available. (The court clerks I turned to answered every question with this: "I can't tell you! I'm not a judge!" And, of course, it's not like you can contact a judge.) Imagine trying to file the tax returns for Microsoft without any training or instructions: that's just a hint of what you're in for here.

Armed with this book, though, I got through the process. And -- against all odds, and despite the ridiculous restrictions and obfuscations this laughable legal system imposes on people WHOSE PARENTS JUST DIED -- I got all the way through probate, saving something like $10,000 in legal fees.

So, if your estate doesn't have much money -- or the legal system just bugs the heck out of you, and you refuse to fling hard-earned money at those charlatans -- get this book and thank your lucky stars it exists.

i just started (well just INCORPORATED) my catering business. i found this book to be written in an accessible and unintimidating style. Fishman goes to great lengths to give examples, cite external sources for additional information, and generally uncomplicates the IRS jargon. now only if i had read this 6 months ago, i would really be ahead of the game!

This book has the information I have been looking for. It is the most detailed (and clearly written) of any books that I've purchased to help me know what is allowable (and not) as deductions for my small business. Helps in planning as well.
SUPERB!

This book is a must small business owners because it can improve their bottom line. Although it provides fairly good overview of tax deudctions, it should not be used as a comprehensive reference for tax professionals.

The book is a relatively light read in a highly readable format. Each tax deduction has a good overview and a case example to boot. It isn't, however, an answer to complex tax questions which the book willingly acknowledges should be taken to a tax professional. For most business owners, this book should be sufficient for most of the tax deduction questions they may have. This book certainly answered all of mine.

The book provides valuable information on the probability of an IRS audit (don't form sole proprietorship if you want to avoid an audit) and how one can minimize one's chances of an audit.

I read this book after forming a C-Corp in California (using the Nolo guide). Although I am familiar with many biz deductions, this book walks you through many examples of deductions you can take if you plan ahead. I really like the "Day in the Life of..." examples of how you can maximize legal deductions pertaining to mileage. There's an excellent section on home office deductions. My husband, a self-admitted dummy when it comes to expense reports, taxes, etc., picked up the book after I was done, and even he understands the concepts. Already he has found deductions for his sole proprietorship and non-reimbursed employee biz expenses. Great value and so easy to understand. Highly recommend.

Great book. Just one comment. A lot of the text in this book is identical to the text in Tax Deductions for Professionals. You don't need both books; choose one.

First off, I have to say this book is absolutely perfect for all first-time freelance graphic designers. My business partner and I recently started our own design agency at [...] and didn't have a clue about where to get our hands on the legal forms needed. We were referred to this book from another source. And since my partner's father-in-law is a lawyer, we decided to let him take a look at it to see what he thought. He said everything was solid. He couldn't find any holes on any of the forms inside. So after making a few small changes to custom fit our business, we were set. I can honestly say this book should be on the shelf of every aspiring freelance graphic designer. I highly recommend it.

I have only serious clients who are willing to pay me because I take a contract to our first meeting and make them sign it. These contracts will protect you and your clients! They are worded with the legal stuff but easy to understand. He even explains what it all means. It even has a CD so you can pop it in your computer right before your meeting (as I have done) and print a contract.

This book has EVERYTHING you need ... and then some. When you think you're not going to need one of the forms in this book, you later realize that YOU DO! As a freelance artist, using these forms made me feel as though clients noticed that they were dealing with a real professional. Absolutely a great investment.

In starting out and gathering information it's hard to determine what books will be helpful. This is great. It is filled with tear out forms you can make copies of and use over and over. Great information. And the CD-ROM includes all the forms in pdf format, as well as Pagemaker and Quark XPress so that you can make changes to fonts and style, logo additions, and more, to suit your own home business. Files are compatible with Mac and IBMC platform, which is great for me being a designer working mostly on an IBM computer. Excellent book!

Our small graphic design firm had been relying on the legal forms and contracts from this book for about one year. Finally, we decided that perhaps we ought to visit with a lawyer to make sure we were doing it right...$560.00 later for an initial consultation, we realized that this $29.95 book was the best business investment we'd ever made! The lawyer confirmed that the contracts that we had been using were airtight and were great (he had a few other pointers...but, none worth $560.00).

We have had many comments from our clients that over all the creative teams they'd worked with over the years, our design firm had surpassed them all in business professionalism. If you are serious about running a firm, or just want to protect yourself, you really can't go wrong with this book! Such a small investment for such a large return!

This book is so crammed with info and knowledge coupled with insight into practices of the industry and courts its like attending a credited law school.With basic torts and concideration of all parts and many elemental workings of the industry.It is a must have.

This is comprehensive & each chapter was written by another expert, so you're bound to like something!

This can be a substitute to the book: "Everything You Need To Know About The Music Business" (Donald Passman)

This book was a required text in my Legal Problems of the Recording Industry class. I'm passionate about the music industry and can give a good debate, but am far from being a "legal mind." This text is great for those, like me, are not the best students in legal courses. This text breaks down real contracts/ agreements into easy to understand formats, section by section. If it wasn't for this text I wouldn't have made an A in the course. This book should be required reading for those in the music business as well as the musicians who will be facing these agreements. Plus, it's like my professor said 'remember, everything is negotiable - don't get screwed in your contract!'

People think music business is all about creation and keeping the fans happy. Well it mostly is but a young artist can become stuck in all that legal stuff. For somebody who is new that can be very difficult and people could take advantage of this and try to cheat you so this book is about all the legal involved aspects of the music business. This book will offer you a detailed explanation of everything that concerns the people in the music business. After you read it you will know what to avoid and understand the issues as they are explained in an easy and franc manner.

I bought this book to fill out my music law library. Among the many books I have read are Passman's book "Everything You Need to Know About the Music Industry", "This Business of Music", and even Moses Avalon's more gritty book "Confessions of a Record Producer." While all of these books provide a great deal helpful information to understanding the music business, they are not really books that contain samples of what the actual contracts look like.

I bought The Musician's Business and Legal Guide a while back just because of the sample contracts. After sorting through the plentiful boilerplate contracts, I found that the information prefacing the agreements, i.e. that actual chapter contents, were even more invaluable than the contracts, which in themselves are pretty thorough. While I use my own hybrid, individualized contracts for the entertainment clients I represent through my law practice, I find myself constantly flipping back to this book as a reference since it covers such a wide range of information. In addition, the annotations in the sample contracts helps to illustrate the degrees of flexibility usually available to those contracts and what the terms actually mean.

This book is definitely not, as another reviewer stated, a book that you set out to read from cover to cover like Passman's book, but it works tremendously well as a reference to go to from time to time. My copy is highlighted and marked all up (and I'm one who normally writes in books).

The value of this book seriously exceeds its cost, and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to see how the concepts discussed in other music business books play out legally.

As a student at Yale Law School planning to go into estate planning, I found this book very helpful. Highly recommended for anyone who needs to plan their estate or for law students taking estate tax or planning courses. This book is easy to understand, well organized, and provides a good amount of detailed information, not just vague ideas. Highly recommended.

This book provides an easy to understand overview of estate planning plus easy to understand detail on many special circumstances. It is very easy to understand which estate planning techniques are right for you, and there are many examples that illustrate how the techniques work. Approximately half of this book is relevant to everyone. The other half gives clear, common sense explantions of advanced planning techniques that are typically reserved for those fortunate enough to be planning a high net worth estate (lets say $1M+). The advanced techniques are not for do it yourselfers, but the book gives you a good understanding of the issues and lets you converse intelligently with an attorney.

Now in a newly updated and expanded seventh edition, Plan Your Estate is a resource provided by attorneys Denis Clifford and Cora Jordan which is packed from cover to cover with everything anyone needs to know to ensure their worldly goods are promptly willed to loved ones. Written in no-nonsense terms that the non-specialist general reader can readily grasp, individual chapters clearly address wills, how to avoid probate, living trusts, property-control trusts, naming guardians for children and leaving property to children, estate taxes, living wills, how to reduce estate taxes, and much, much more. Especially recommended for individuals who own a business or who have children from a former marriage, Plan Your Estate is a "must-have", "do-it-yourself" legal resource, which is applicable to all American states except for Louisiana. Even those who prefer to let a professional handle the whole process of estate planning would be well served to read Plan Your Estate cover to cover, before stepping into an attorney's office where time is money and the clock is running.

Great for law students taking an estate planning course or an estate and gift tax course. Also good for people wanting to learn about estate planning in general. I would recommend this book.

This book is a must buy resource for persons interested in estate planning. Whether you are planning to do-it-yourself or use a lawyer, it is good to know what your options are. I am much better informed after reading this book.

This book can be summed up with one theme: defer paying taxes for as long as possible. One excellent point that this book does define for you though is how to choose your beneficiaries in the best possible way. As a financial planner this has become one of the most popular questions that I am asked from people whom I meet. This book is a great guide towards answering those questions.

Bravo!

This book is a must read if you're planning to retire wealthy, or at least securely.

And...

Every college student should be required to study this book carefully if they want to avoid all the common mistakes and money pitfalls that 98% of us fall into. I wish I had read this when I was in college... I would be $100,000 wealthier.

- Dave

James Lang has had so much excellent advice for my husband and me that we purchased 7 copies for our adult children and are hopeful they will benefit from the knowledge in the books and cds.

James Lange's Retire Secure, offers great techniques to help persons planning for retirement. He is on the right track - to postpone and minimize the impact of taxes - in order to maximize the retiree's money and extend the spendable income. This book makes a valuable contribution to the field of personal finance - for both the consumers and the professional advisors who serve them.

Reading "Retire Secure" will not alone make you rich. However, if you read and follow Mr. Lange's advice, you will build wealth and then protect it to the fullest extent possible. The book outlines a very clear path to maximize savings using the most effective vehicle available to you. Then it goes on to provide a thorough roadmap to minimizing your tax consequences and maximizing your after tax returns. Finally the book provides several different strategies for passing along wealth to your heirs while once again factoring in the greedy hands of Uncle Sam. The author not only provides you with the theory, as many financial planners do, but backs up his recommendations with solid proofs and confirms them with amusing case studies. Overall this book is an excellent source for information on the use of retirement funds for wealth building and hopefully inheritance to pass on.

I purchased the book since my employer explained that I will become an independent contractor for 2007. The book explained everything about being a contractor and how to stay in line with paying the taxes, how to protect my self employed status, what deductions I can take, and what forms and agreements I should use. I found it very informative and would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the world of self employment.

I recently a started an S corp for my software contracting. The book is helpful and worth the price. It won't answer EVERY question you will have, but you probably should talk to a CPA for those anyway.

Plenty of books impart the basics of how to work independently - but too few include all the legal tips, tricks and traps involved. WORKING FOR YOURSELF: LAW & TAXES FOR INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS, FREELANCERS & CONSULTANTS covers everything from setting appropriate fees and understanding how and when taxes are paid to limiting liability and getting paid. Record-keeping processes are simplified with sample logs and entry advice, chapters on how the IRS defines an independent contractor versus a paid employee are essential keys to keeping independent status, and advice on pricing and insurance offer key strategy-oriented tips and approaches. A 'must' for any who would work independently.

My husband is an independent photographer, so the Nolo Press books are great for him, geared as they are to all those wishing to handle all the paperwork for themselves, instead of the usual array of lawyers, accountants, etc. He keeps it as a reference book and can easily turn to whatever subject he needs more information on. Well-written and easy to understand, as are all Nolo books, these books are wonderful to review periodically.

A potential employer asked that I incorporate my freelancing business before they start sending me jobs. I wanted to do some research on the pros/cons of incorporating, what kind of start-ups costs this would entail, and what kind of corporation I should be. At first, the whole process of incorporating sounded like a huge money burden on my part--with filing fees and taxes--but this book has helped me sort out the issues and provided detailed information about the different ways to incorporate--sole proprietorship, LLC, S-corps. Although I haven't yet decided which path I will take, this book has made the jump to freelancing, and self-incorporating, less scary.

Not only do I understand my choices better, but I also now understand the different structures for businesses and their tax responsibilities. Great distillation of information! The copies of tax forms in the back are also a great reference. Highly recommended.

The book is fantastic. Plain and simple. I have highlighted, written in the margins, on the covers, and in some way marked up almost every page of the book. Not only did I find it immensely useful for her class, but also used it in conjunction with Bittker & Eustice (the corp tax bible, but not for the faint of heart) for a corporate reorganization class. Using the last 1/3 of her book made slogging through the B&E book much less painful. Highly recommended.

While it does not go into as much detail as I will need to know for the exam this book is a great substitute for actually paying attention in class.

This is an excellent book to understand Subchapter C. The order it follows is methodical. It goes to explain all the tax issues that arise from formation of the corporation (incorporation and contributions) to midlife events (dividends, redemptions) to liquidation. It deals with taxable and non-taxable reorganizations and with such interesting issues as Section 304 transactions. It is not and cannot be a complete guide to corporate taxation. it would have to be several volumes, but it accomplishes perfectly what it is meant to do. Cheryl Block did a fantastic job. the example and explanations are very useful.

Professor Block's book is really, really good - very easy to understand. She manages to make what are complex tax laws understandable -- I couldn't imagine taking my corp tax class without this study aid. The writing is unusually good for a law treatise.

This volume reduces into terms capable of being readily absorbed the application of Subchapter C. The examples and explanations are basic while conveying the needed concepts of various treatments of contributed property, boot, distributions, attribution rules, etc.