Tax Planning

We are, first and foremost, tax attorneys. We have spent countless years engaging in hundreds of transactions trying to outwit the tax man. Today, our practice focuses on the more sophisticated and difficult aspects of tax planning.

Gain Deferral

We commonly work with real estate investors and business owners looking to sell their appreciated assets and facing a large tax on sale. We assist them with strategies designed to defer the recognition of capital gain. Usually, our clients can cash out on the sale of an appreciated asset today, but pay the tax many years from now.

This type of planning requires great care and will not work on a last minute basis. We would be happy to discuss these strategies with you in more detail to determine if they would be appropriate in your tax planning.

Obtaining Deductions

Many taxpayers look for ways to reduce their taxable income in a legal and workable manner. Our strategies allow you to take large deductions, ranging from $100,000 to $5,000,000, without losing control of your money or subjecting you to IRS scrutiny or penalties.

For example, we recently assisted a doctor with $3,000,000 in annual revenues in obtaining a $300,000 deduction. Unlike a contribution to a retirement plan, our structure allowed the doctor to retain complete control over the cash, and resulted in no loss of liquidity.

Many manufacturers, contractors, doctors and other high income taxpayers commonly avail themselves of these deductions. To find out if one of these strategies may be appropriate for you, please call us.

Converting Ordinary Income to Capital Gain

Real estate developers are usually subject to ordinary income on the sale of real estate. With proper planning, we allow our clients to convert what would otherwise be ordinary income into a capital gain. In some cases we may even afford them the benefit of deferring the recognition of the capital gain on sale. As with any other tax planning strategy, converting ordinary income to a capital gain requires careful planning and structuring, in advance of the sale.

Structuring Offshore Operations

We assist many clients, whether startup or established companies, with all of their operations and business activities outside of the United States. Typically, this involves developing tax-efficient investment structures, transfers of intangible property, availability of foreign tax credits, ensuring deferral of taxable income recognition and minimizing withholding taxes.

Over the years we have represented numerous internet-based companies, including online gambling, adult entertainment, entertainment content distribution and others. In many instances, we have succeeded in structuring our client's operations to avoid or defer most US-based taxes.

Business Law

We often act as our clients' consigliore in all types of business manners. We advise clients on acquisitions and sales of businesses, contracts, joint venture agreements and many other types of business deals.

Being a business lawyer means a lot more than simply drafting legal forms. Real value is provided by advocating a client's position, seeking out potential problems, negotiating, reaching mutually agreeable solutions and performing due diligence.

We realize that your business is your livelihood, and we take your needs close to heart.

Tax Litigation

Robert F. Klueger is a nationally recognized tax attorney. He is not only the author of numerous books and articles, he is also one of the very few lawyers in Los Angeles who has litigated a tax case before the United States Supreme Court.

He frequently represents clients involved in audits or other disputes with the Internal Revenue Services, the Franchise Tax Board, the Employment Development Department and the State Board of Equalization.

Estate Planning

Klueger & Stein, LLP's estate planning services range from preparing simple wills and durable powers of attorney, to designing and implementing comprehensive plans to transfer wealth to younger generation family members in ways that considers both personal and tax-saving goals.

We prepare wills and living trusts as the fundamental estate planning documents for clients. In those cases in which a client decides to create a living trust to avoid court-supervised probate administration, we advise clients about the transfer of assets and assist with transferring the main residence and other assets into the trust.

Many of our clients own closely held businesses that will be passed to younger generations. We assist clients in structuring the inter-generation transfer process, to allow participation by younger family members, without taking away the control of the older generation. Our attorneys also prepare agreements to control the management and disposition of business interests during lifetime and at death, including buy-sell agreements.

In addition to the basic estate planning tools such as the living trust, our attorneys have extensive experience drafting and implementing:

1. Irrevocable life insurance trusts
2. Qualified personal residence trusts
3. Charitable remainder and uni-trusts
4. Private foundations
5. Grantor retained interest trusts
6. Domestic and international defective grantor trusts

Asset Protection

Our special expertise at Klueger & Stein, LLP lies in structuring the ownership of your assets to protect them from the rest of the world. Creditors, plaintiffs, banks, the IRS, disaffected business partners, soon-to-be ex-spouses, all can threaten those assets. Our asset protection planning can reduce, or even eliminate, those threats long before they appear. Our clients tell us that the peace of mind that protection brings is priceless.

We are recognized as having one of the leading asset protection practices in the nation. While we have published books, wrote numerous articles, and spoke at hundreds of seminars on this subject, our expertise was developed in the trenches – protecting clients' assets and defending those structures from attack. We know what works not only legally, but also practically.

Over the years our attorneys have represented hundreds of doctors, business owners, real estate developers and investors, entrepreneurs, officers and directors of public companies, and various other individuals and professionals (including partners of international law and accounting firms).

Please see our publications page for white papers detailing everything you could possibly have wanted to know about asset protection, published articles, and frequently asked questions.

Also see our dedicated asset protection website that discusses all aspects of asset protection — for everyone from the average consumer to doctors, attorneys and other professionals.

www.MaximumAssetProtection.com