Author Archives: Jay Butchko
The Employee Retention Tax Credit Could Help Your Company Save Money
The COVID-19 pandemic is dragging on into its second year, like a song with a catchy riff that eventually trails off into an endless outro of guitar noodling. The number of new COVID-19 infections is decreasing in most states, more people are getting vaccinated, and there are murmurings that some once-normal activities might be… Read More »
When Interested Parties Disagree About The Value Of An Estate
The tabloid headlines light up whenever a probate dispute rises over a wealthy man’s estate, especially if the parties to the dispute are the decedent’s widow and his daughter from a previous marriage. Gossip columnists love to speculate about how the feud between the two women actually began; they often attribute it to decades-old… Read More »
Are Your Estranged Relatives Filing Objections In Probate Just To Mess With You?
Sometimes probate disputes are just a proxy for long-standing grudges between estranged family members. Genuine disagreements about the validity or intent of the deceased person’s will or other aspects of the deceased person’s estate plan can get mixed up with anger and grief over the decedent’s death and final illness. The law requires the… Read More »
Do Commercial Tenants Have a Duty of Care to Protect the Leased Property from Arson by a Third Party?
Negligence is a central issue in many civil lawsuits; the plaintiff is suing the defendant for compensation for financial losses the plaintiff suffered because of something irresponsible the defendant did, or else something reasonably cautious that the defendant failed to do. In order for a plaintiff to win a lawsuit about negligence, you must… Read More »
Maryland’s RELIEF Act Includes a Sales Tax Credit for Small Businesses Adversely Affected by the Pandemic
Spring is almost here, the snow is melting, and everyone is starting to panic about tax season. Filing business taxes is never easy, and even the most well-organized small business owners often get an unpleasant surprise when they meet with a tax accountant about their business taxes. Clickbait authors know that headlines about quadruple-digit… Read More »
How a Business Law Attorney Can Help You Prevent Business Litigation
Many small business owners only contact a lawyer when they have a big problem. A former client or former employee is threatening to sue the company, a bigger company is giving you the choice of letting it buy you out for a paltry sum or else putting you out of business through heavy-handed competition,… Read More »
How to Claim an Elective Share of Your Spouse’s Estate If Your Spouse Had Complex Business Interests
Maryland law allows married people to leave as much or as little property to their spouses as they choose in their wills. This means that, just because you are married, you can still choose to leave your entire estate to your siblings, your children from a previous marriage, a favorite charity, or anyone else. … Read More »
Blockchain Could Make Real Estate Transactions Safer and Less Expensive
When many of us hear the word “blockchain,” the first image that comes to mind is that of shady dealings in mysterious cryptocurrencies that are linked to no precious metals, no banknotes, and no governments. The only identities are pseudonyms and alphanumeric codes long enough even to confound people who know hundreds of digits… Read More »
Be Careful How You Word Your Declaration of Trust
Even if you are very early in the research and brainstorming phase of your estate planning process, you have probably given more than a passing thought to setting up a trust. Living trusts, which are set up during your lifetime, and testamentary trusts, the establishment of which is provided for in your will, make… Read More »
Beyond PPP: The New Stimulus Bill Contains Other Forgivable Loan Options for Small Businesses
The new COVID-19 pandemic relief bill is thousands of pages long, but a few aspects of it have attracted the lion’s share of the media coverage. Which individuals will get another round of direct stimulus payments? How much money will these payments be, and how soon will they be in people’s bank accounts? Small… Read More »
