Shows / North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Plain-English briefings on business tax, IRS defense, and bankruptcy from North Star Law Firm, a Houston attorney-CPA practice. We break down what actually loses deductions, triggers penalties, and sinks reorganizations and how to protect yourself before the notice arrives. Episodes are narrated using AI-generated audio, edited and produced by North Star Law Firm. Free consultations and full written analyses with citations at htx-legal.net
Episodes
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Colorado Family Loans at the AFR: Gift and Estate Tax
A Boulder parent wants to lend her daughter $900,000 for a house instead of a jumbo mortgage. Charge the applicable federal rate on a real promissory note and…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
California Nonprofit Insider Loans and the 200% IRS Tax
A California charity president signs a "loan" to his own LLC and nobody votes. A September 2026 Tax Court decision shows the insider owing more than $1.3…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Missed the 90-Day Tax Court Deadline in California? What Still Works After Kings Road
Missed the 90-day window to petition the U.S. Tax Court after an IRS notice went to an old address? Some circuits now forgive late petitions, but California…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Selling a California Business? What a Buyer’s $1 Purchase Agreement Can Cost You
A buyer's draft reciting one dollar and other consideration, a broad noncompete, and a sign-now-close-later timeline can cost a California seller the real…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Tax Preparer Fraud Statute of Limitations in New Mexico After the Murrin Cert Denial
A preparer falsifies returns, the client never knows, and years later the IRS sends a notice for every tainted year. After the Supreme Court declined to review…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Selling an S Corporation Division: California’s Unitary Test After Western Distributing
An S corporation sells one division to an out-of-state buyer. Can California tax the gain? A June 2026 Office of Tax Appeals opinion, Western Distributing…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Estate Planning When One Spouse Is Not a U.S. Citizen: How California Community Property Changes the QDOT Math
A green card does not restore the marital deduction when the surviving spouse is not a U.S. citizen, and a living trust that leaves everything to the survivor…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Colorado Contractors Short on Cash: Trust Fund Debts and Bankruptcy Choices
A Colorado contractor's personal exposure in a cash crunch runs through two doors: draws spent on the wrong job, and payroll tax withheld but never sent to the…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Section 1031 Exchanges in California: The Form 3840 Clawback That Follows You Out of State
Exchanging California investment property for out-of-state property defers the tax but not California's claim: Form 3840 must be filed every year until the…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
When a New Mexico Commercial Tenant Files Bankruptcy: Rent, Stub Rent, the Landlord’s Lien, and the § 502(b)(6) Cap
A tenant's bankruptcy freezes the eviction, the lockout, and the deposit, and it can wipe out New Mexico's landlord's lien. A Santa Fe Chapter 7 example shows…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
You Won a Judgment in California and the Defendant Filed Chapter 11: What Van Leeuwen v. Rebel Teaches Judgment Creditors
A judgment is only worth what you can collect, and a well-timed Chapter 11 petition can erase a judgment lien that attached within the last 90 days. This…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
The Overtime Deduction in New Mexico: Why the W-2 Controls, Which State-Law Overtime Doesn’t Count, and Why the State Return Gets Nothing
New Mexico has two overtime laws that don't line up, and only the overtime federal law requires counts toward the new deduction. From 2026 wages on, whatever…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
The 14-Day Bankruptcy Appeal Trap: What Campbell v. Radiance Teaches New Mexico Litigants About the Separate Judgment Rule
A bankruptcy appeal filed thirty-one days after the ruling survived — because the fourteen-day clock never actually started. This episode walks through the…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
DOJ’s New Fraud Division Published Its Target List, and New Mexico Is All Over It: A Business Owner’s Guide to the Five Priorities
The DOJ's new National Fraud Enforcement Division has published five priorities — government program fraud, healthcare fraud, criminal tax, trade fraud, and…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
When Banks Answer for Ponzi Schemes: The iCap Ruling and the Full Recovery Map for New Mexico Investors
A federal court refused to dismiss investors' claims against the bank behind a $230 million Ponzi scheme — the bank's own compliance files allegedly showed…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Daily Debits Eating Your Revenue? A Bankruptcy Court Just Showed How Merchant Cash Advance Debt Can Be Attacked
A bankruptcy court avoided two merchant cash advance obligations as constructively fraudulent — wiping out promises to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Ghost Preparers, AI Audits, and Fraud Victim Relief: Seven Tax Bills Just Moved, and Five Could Matter in New Mexico
Congress just advanced seven bills that change how the IRS operates, and five of them passed without a single no vote. This episode walks through what they…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Funding a Child’s Trump Account? The IRS Just Drew the Gift Tax Line, and It Is Narrower Than You Think
Trump Accounts opened for contributions this summer, and the IRS's new Revenue Procedure 2026-25 safe harbor decides whether funding one is a reportable gift…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Scammed in a ’Pig Butchering’ Investment Fraud? The Tax Code May Give New Mexico Victims Back a Piece
Pig butchering scams cost victims billions, but the tax code may return a meaningful piece of what was stolen — if the loss qualifies as an…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
The Receivership Order That Locked the Courthouse Door: Mount Acadia and the Fight Over Who Can File Chapter 11
A California bankruptcy court just dismissed a company's Chapter 11 petition because the receivership order had already stripped management of the power to…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
How to Stop an IRS Wage Garnishment in New Mexico: What the IRS Can Take, and the Five Ways Out
An IRS wage levy needs no lawsuit and no judgment, and there is no percentage cap on what it can take from a New Mexico paycheck. This briefing explains how…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
New Federal Crackdown on Off-the-Books Payroll and ITIN Accounts: What Houston Employers Should Know
A new FinCEN advisory puts off-the-books payroll, labor brokers, and ITIN-based accounts under coordinated scrutiny from banking regulators, the IRS, and…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
When Can a Servicer Keep Your Cash? The Seventh Circuit’s CMBS Cash-Sweep Ruling and What Borrowers Should Watch
A federal appeals court just revived a commercial borrower's fight over a CMBS cash sweep that trapped millions in rental income — all because two clauses in…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Can a Bankruptcy Trustee Claw Back Money From a Downstream Recipient? Section 550 After ONH
A bankruptcy trustee can reach past the person who took money straight from a failed business and sue whoever received it later. A recent Delaware decision…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Losing Your Appeal to Mootness Isn’t ’Irreparable Harm’: The Del Monte Stay Ruling and What Objecting Creditors Must Prove
When a Chapter 11 plan is consummated, an objecting creditor's appeal can die as equitably moot — and the Del Monte Foods ruling shows that the risk of…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
Who Owns the Fraud Claim? When a Customer’s Bankruptcy Doesn’t Take Your Right to Sue Its Officers
Your customer goes bankrupt after its officers assured you it was healthy — so who owns the fraud claim against them, you or the estate? A recent Delaware…
- North Star Tax and Legal Briefing
The Simmons Case: Why "It's in My Accounting Software" Won't Save Your Deductions
A real business spent real money, kept its books in accounting software — and still lost most of its deductions in Tax Court. One owner's income was…