July 2022 - Stees, Walker & Company, LLP Blog

Keeping Pace with California Tax Law: Part 1 — Understanding Prop 19

By Office Staff|2022-08-18T12:29:46-07:00July 27, 2022|Categories: Legislation, Real Estate|Tags: California Prop 19, Prop 58|0 Comments

Nobody can accuse California legislators of being lazy when it comes to tax legislation. They’re constantly introducing new legislation, which often presents opportunities for taxpayers to reduce their tax liability. And whether you agree with their approach or feel such relief is a poor use of taxpayer funds, staying on top of these relief measures only benefits you and the things you care about.

As one of California’s premier tax and financial strategy firms, we keep a close eye on changes to federal, state, and local tax code, so that we can fine-tune each of our client’s personalized tax-savings and wealth-building plans.

In this three-part series, we discuss three recent changes to California tax code that may impact your taxes (hopefully in a good way):

Prop 19, which makes it more affordable for older homeowners to relocate in California
The Parent-Child Exclusion, which applies to the purchase or transfer of a principal residence between parents and children
Property tax relief for the elderly and disabled

Understanding Prop 19

Prop 19 — The Home Protection for Seniors, Severely Disabled, Families, and Victims of Wildfire or Natural Disasters Act — is intended to help retirees and older homeowners sell their primary residence and relocate within California more affordably. Starting April 1, 2021, eligible California homeowners could sell their primary residence and transfer the tax base from their previous home to their next home of equal or lesser value.

For example, suppose you’ve owned a home in San Diego for the last 20 years and its assessed value is Continue reading…

Tax Relief for California Taxpayers

By Office Staff|2022-07-13T16:46:28-07:00July 13, 2022|Categories: Legislation|Tags: California, California Assembly Bill 194, California Assembly Bill No. 192, Tax Refund|0 Comments

The California State Assembly — the lower house of the California State Legislature — recently passed legislation to offer inflation relief to California residents who filed their 2020 taxes along with addition tax-relief legislation. In this post, we touch on the key points of the new legislation.

Better for Families (Inflation Relief) Tax Refund

California Assembly Bill No. 192 establishes what is commonly referred to as the “Inflation Relief Tax Refund.” This bill authorizes a one-time tax refund of up to $1,050 for married filing jointly (MFJ) taxpayers with California Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of up to $500,000 with a dependent and up to $700 payment for qualifying individual taxpayers with California AGI of up to $250,000 with a dependent.

Payments will be distributed starting late October (the earliest) with the last batch expected to be sent by the middle of January 2023.

To qualify to receive the refund, you must meet the following criteria:

Filed your 2020 tax return by October 15, 2021. If you didn’t file your 2020 tax return by this date, you’re not eligible for the refund. However, if you applied for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) and had not received it by October 15, 2021, you must have filed your complete 2020 tax return by February 15, 2022.
Have a 2020 California adjusted gross income (AGI) of $500,000 or less (married filing jointly or head of household) or $250,000 or less (single filer)
Have been a California resident for six months or more of the 2020 tax year
Have not been eligible to be claimed as a dependent in the 2020 tax year
Are a California resident on the date the payment is issued

If you qualify, you will receive a direct deposit payment (if you filed your return electronically and indicated direct deposit on your tax return); otherwise, you’ll receive payment in the form of a debit card.

The payment amount you can expect depends on your adjusted gross income (AGI): Continue reading…

Do You Need a Title Lock Service?

By Office Staff|2022-07-07T16:18:33-07:00July 7, 2022|Categories: Real Estate|Tags: Real Estate Fraud, Title Insurance, Title Lock|0 Comments

Many companies these days are promoting title lock services, claiming to offer protection against scammers who commit title fraud — a crime that involves fraudulently transferring a property title or deed from the rightful owners to the scammer.

Sadly, committing title fraud is easy — the scammer simply forges or tricks the owners of the property into signing a quit claim deed or other document to relinquish ownership of the property. The scammer files the document with the county clerk to record a change of ownership — to the scammer. The scammer can then try to evict the rightful owners, claim ownership of the property for themselves, and then sell it or (more commonly) borrow money against the home and leave the homeowners and lender to battle over the mortgage payments.

Scary, yes, but does a title lock service provide sufficient protection to warrant its cost? In this post, we explain what a title lock service is and help you decide whether it’s something you want to spend money on.

What Is a Title Lock Service?

First things first — a title lock service doesn’t lock your title. It doesn’t prevent someone from filing a quit claim deed or using some other method to fraudulently claim that you transferred ownership of your property to them. All it does is notify you, after the fact, when someone succeeds in filing a document that shows a transfer of ownership. It’s sort of like when you receive a notification from an online service that someone changed the username, password, or contact information for your account and letting you know that if you didn’t do it, then something suspicious is going on, and you need to look into it.

Many counties in the U.S. are starting to offer this same service for free. All you need to do, in most cases, is fill out a form to register for the service, provide proof of identity, list the properties you own that you want to be notified about, and specify your preferred contact information — email address, phone number, or mailing address. Whenever someone tries to transfer ownership of your property or change the name on the deed, the county notifies you, so that you can take legal action to protect what’s yours.

Title Insurance Versus a Title Lock

Don’t confuse title insurance with a title lock. Title insurance is a Continue reading…