Dead man was asked to pay up income tax 18 years later

(Two letters referred by this article are appended below)

There was a case recently in which IRAS requested payment and penalty for income tax owned by a dead man. What’s intriguing is that the man was already dead for 18 years. Fortunately, the family members had documentary proof stored in their storeroom that the tax was already paid just one year after the man died (think: the family actually stored this document for 17 years!). IRAS apologised for the mistake in Straits Times forum page. So what’s going on and how to learn from this?

When a person dies, the Personal Representative must pay off all debts before distributing the estate. The estate is the collective assets left behind by the dead person. If there was no Will, the Administrator is responsible that all debts are paid before distribution. To ensure the Administrator does its job, two sureties (guarantors) each having net assets equal or more than the estate are required for estate above $250,000 or if there are beneficiaries who are still minors. If there was any negligent on the part of the Administrator, the sureties are responsible for the financial lost. If there was a Will, the appointed Executor is responsible to use the estate and pay off all debts. No sureties are required. However, if all Executors are not able to act (due to being disabled, dead, missing or simply resign), the procedure will be exactly like as if there was no Will and hence it is called application for Letter of Administrations with Will Annexed. The procedure is the same as if there was no Will except the distribution will follow the Will.

The burden to ensure all debts are paid lies on the Trustee of the estate, which is either the Executor or the Administrator. It is very possible to have creditors come knocking at the door even after 18 years! Like for this recent case, it was the tax man that came knocking at the door after 18 years to ask for tax owned. If the Trustee is unable to proof that the debt was already paid, the Trustee becomes financially liable to pay off this debt. Of course, the Trustee can clawback from the beneficiaries but this is going to be extremely tedious especially if there is more than 1 beneficiary.

Most people do not realise what this means to their family. Most people have not written their Will. As a result, they assume someone in the family will be the Administrator. For married couple, it is always assumed that the surviving spouse will be the one (although this is not guaranteed). As a result, they will place an undue burden on their spouse to manage the estate such as paying off all debts. But as it can be seen by this IRAS example that this burden can last for nearly two decades! I am not sure whether is it wise to leave behind a yoke to be carried by your wife or husband for this long! Not to mention the necessity to store documents in the storeroom for two decades.

For those who have written their Wills, I have seen Wills being written to the detriment of their Executors. They would often appoint a financially and legally challenged Executor. Usually this will also be their own spouse and family members. Again, these Executors will need to carry the burden probably for the rest of their lives such as constantly worry whether all debts have been paid and the need to store documentary proof for 18 years in the storeroom. Very often, Wills written by young couples create implicit trust without them even been advised what this really means to the Executor. An implicit trust is created such as when a beneficiary is still a minor. In this case, the Executor becomes the Trustee of this asset until the beneficiary reaches legal age. The duly of the Trustee is significant because he or she has the fiduciary to ensure the assets are managed to the interest of beneficiaries otherwise the Trustee is financially liable for losses. There are solutions to this but it is not within the scope of this article.

Since the burden is so great on the Administrator and the Executor, estate planning is something which people cannot ignore. Ignoring the need of estate planning is equivalent of saying that you are happy with your wife or children to carry the yoke of being constantly worried for debts of the estate. I am not sure how it feels like to be invoiced by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore after 18 years. I think the compounding effect of the penalty imposed will probably give anyone an immediate heart attack!

As for this case, IRAS mentioned that a mistake probably occurred when the cashier order meant to settle the tax arrears of the estate was instead credited to the trustee’s own income tax account. I am not sure what’s going on here but it reminds me of one thing. It is extremely important for a trustee to keep a solid record of accounts to ensure that the assets of the estate do not mixed with the trustee’s own estate. Since it cannot be guaranteed that other third parties will not mix it up, the onus is on the trustee to perform a perfect record keeping.

In Singapore’s context, my empirical estimate is that 99% of the Singapore residents have not done estate planning. For those who have written their Wills, they wrote nonsensical Wills that are not worth the papers printed on. These Wills may be valid but practically nonsense Also, it is a common misconception that estate planning is all about writing a Will. Writing a Will is just one of the tools and yet 99% of who used this tool wrote nonsense. Actually, the best people who can do estate planning are financial planners because estate planning is one of the pillars in financial planning. Unfortunately, estate planning does not involve selling a product and hence there is no commission for doing a thorough estate planning. To the disgrace of the industry, it is a well known fact that estate planning has been abused and used as a tool to sell expensive and unsuitable insurance products.

If you want to do estate planning, make sure the estate planner isn’t going to sell you another useless product. What you need is an estate plan, not product.

You may also wish to read a related article: “Describe the process of a person who dies testate / intestate” http://bit.ly/9A7GRq







Tax letter arrives years after death
MY FAMILY received a letter from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) in November last year, regarding the estate of my grandfather who died in 1992. The letter was addressed to the trustees of his estate and requested payment of an outstanding tax and penalty for assessment year 1992.

The letter was brief and did not provide any details as to how the amount was reached. Only after calling the officer who wrote the letter, and because of our persistence, did we get another letter this month with a brief statement of account.

Fortunately, my parents had kept the records of payment in the storeroom and we found documentary proof of payment in 1993. But it is puzzling that it took the taxman nearly two decades to alert us.

Carol Ong (Ms)
Feb 13, 2010
Published in Straits Times Forum

Sorry, Iras has explained tax error
I REFER to the letter by Ms Carol Ong, 'Tax letter arrives years after death' (Feb 13).

Ms Ong's family received a letter from us in November last year with regard to the income tax payable by the estate of Ms Ong's grandfather. The case was identified in a recent review of arrears of old cases. Prior to her letter, our staff had been in discussion with Ms Ong and her mother to clear up the matter.

We have since clarified with Ms Ong's family and confirmed that payment had already been made in 1993 by one of the trustees of the estate. However, the payment, in the form of a cashier's order, was credited to the income tax account of the trustee, instead of being used to settle the tax arrears of the estate.

We have explained to Ms Ong how the error may have arisen and would like to apologise to her and her family for the inconvenience.

Deanna Choo (Ms)
Director (Corporate Communications)
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
Feb 23, 2010
Published in Straits Times Forum


Original post:
http://www.cpf.gov.sg/imsavvy/blog_post.asp?postid=705870790-66-6957622765

血與火豈能割捨母愛（極度震撼）

血與火豈能割捨母愛（極度震撼）

作者：姚甦

在我的《非洲奇遇記》中曾經提到過，非洲的尼日爾河流域有一個很大的市場，很特別，整個市場賣的都是野味。有很多野生穿山甲、鱷魚、大號蜥蜴，甚至有賣梅花鹿、斑馬和猴子，這些東西在國內都早已禁售、禁食。

有一次，我們爲了招待國內來考察的官員，特地驅車一百多公里，帶他們一起去採購野味。

鱷魚欄一般人不敢靠近，只叫我的老司機丹尼爾替我們去選購，我們一行人則直接去挑選穿山甲。穿山甲被捕獲以後，出於恐懼或是自衛的本能，總是把軀體緊緊蜷縮著，卷成一圈。

一般購買程式是這樣的：買主選定以後，賣方黑人便用力把穿山甲拉直，開膛破肚，取出內臟丟棄，將身軀清理乾淨，再用鐵夾夾著放到火盆裏烤灼，直到其身體上的鱗甲全部脫落。
那天貨源頗豐，圍欄裏放滿了許多卷成圈的大小不一的穿山甲。那些官員便揀大的挑了幾隻，並聲稱要親眼看著宰殺才放心。

一個黑人小夥子提起最肥的一隻，動作嫺熟地準備把它拉直，費了半天力，卻怎麽也無法把那蜷縮的軀體拉開。

這下所有人大奇，那小夥子十分難堪，便一下又一下把那穿山甲往地面上摔去，邊摔邊解釋說，穿山甲遇痛就會將軀體伸張開。不曾想，連摔幾下，眼見它倔強驚恐的小眼睛早已閉合，尖尖的嘴角挂出一縷鮮紅的血絲，身體卻始終未見張開，反而越蜷越緊。

我們不忍卒睹，便搖手示意作罷。那黑人小夥子兀自不甘心，直接拿鐵鉗夾了放到火盆上灼燒。待到鱗甲脫盡，焦味彌漫，那穿山甲仍然保持原狀。

這下黑人黔驢技窮，對我們無奈地搖搖頭，說這只穿山甲一定有了什麽毛病，不可食用，隨即順手將其甩落在身後的沙土地上。

接下來另選的兩隻宰殺工作都十分順利，不到五分鐘便完成了。我們和黑人正在付錢找錢，卻十分意外地發現，原先那只被丟棄在地上的穿山甲，竟慢慢地伸直了軀體，把眼睛眯開一條線，接著一陣抽搐，僵硬挺直，徹底沒了氣息。

隨著它軀體的伸展，我們震驚地看到，在它攤平的肚皮上，竟蠕動著一隻粉嫩透明的小穿山甲，只有老鼠大小，身上的躋帶，仍與母體相連，小嘴慢慢張合，仿佛在無聲地呼喚著母親。

這場景，驚得所有人目瞪口呆。
刹那間，我只覺得熱血翻湧，鬚髮皆張，幾欲落淚。

那只母穿山甲自身體重不超過十斤，卻用血肉之軀歷經摔打與灼燒，至死護衛著自己的孩子，被烤至半熟，竟還能保得孩子周全。
那份精神之力，早已超越了生命的常規。

看完後，我有很深的感動..天下的媽媽都是一樣的!!!

動物是朋友，不是食物，不是食物，俠之大者，不欺凌弱小，保護動物朋友，請當個素超人吧!

如果短時間內您無法成為素食人，那就請漸進式的改變，地球將因您良善的改變，還原回美麗、物種平衡與和諧。

Show off the money you made with google adsense

Now everyone can show off the money you made with google adsense, eih? This is a fake report generator, so everyone can claim the method they used are the best methods to make money from adsense.

http://googleadsensegenerator.com/

Uncle went to kitchen

My mum bought the miku, my wife prepare the mixture, I fried it, heheheheh

http://mummypreasure.blogspot.com/2010/02/miku-french-toast.html

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year to those celebrating. :)
Wish you a very prosperous new year ahead!





You might also interested to visit:
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/
http://anekuanpunboleh.blogspot.com/

Super bowl commercial that I like!

Two super bowl commercial that I like:

#2 - Google
This Giant tried to tell whole world that google is not for geeks only. It is part of our life already.


#1 - Beaver playing violin
Reach out to your dream?




Also visit my other blog:
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/

Face worms? Warning - do not see video before eating

Saw this video in facebook, do not watch it before/after eating. Not going to show it here, so it is up to you if you want to look at it or not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiHtUFuGgSA

Basically it show that human face/skin contain worms. Not sure how true. But after google around, found some thing.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4773/

Most likely it is some hoax. Just don't simply let people to rub things on your face/skin.