Who inherits your bank account has almost nothing to do with your will. Banking beneficiaries, set through POD, Totten trust, joint, or trust accounts, pass outside probate, and in California a designation can beat your will entirely. Here’s how each works.
California Proposition 19 lets seniors carry a low tax base to a new home, but sharply limits the parent-child inheritance exclusion and caps it at a set dollar amount. Here’s what families and property owners need to know.
Religious employment gives churches real freedom over who fills their faith-based roles, but that freedom has limits. Here’s how Title VII’s exemption and the ministerial exception protect a church’s decisions, and exactly where they stop.
Renting the sanctuary for a wedding or running a garage sale can raise a real tax question for a church. Here’s how the incidental use of church property interacts with UBIT, and the exceptions that keep most church fundraisers tax-free.
How California’s ABC test determines independent contractor status, the steep misclassification penalties, and why clergy are a separate, dual-status category.
Selling church property takes more than a listing. Learn the five steps every California church must follow: confirming ownership, getting congregational approval, securing the right representation, understanding true value, and giving the Attorney General proper notice before the sale.
That extension cord running under the sanctuary rug is both a fire hazard and a liability risk. Here’s what the California Fire Code actually requires for extension cords, and how a known hazard can put your church on the hook.
Property tax assessments don’t just change when you buy a property — new construction, exemption loss, and even transfers to family members can trigger reassessment. Here’s what actually triggers it, and what Proposition 19 changed.
