Finance – Heidi Scott (Illinois)

An Overview of the Title Examination Process

An accomplished Illinois attorney and business owner, Heidi Scott has over two decades of legal experience. Heidi Scott is the owner of Illinois-based Schuyler Brown Land Title, a full-service title company that delivers title examination service, among others.

Title examination is a key process of a real estate transaction whereby a search is conducted to determine the real identity of the owners of a property as well as other information associated with a property. This process seeks to determine whether any encumbrances attached to the property might hinder or affect the transaction. Encumbrances include any restrictions placed on the property in the course of ownership and unpaid taxes.

Additional information sought during title examination includes plats (map of an area of land) and restrictive covenants that prohibit certain actions. Title examinations also disclose the history of property ownership, all the deeds issued in the past, and verifying the chain of the title. The examination also checks for any will and trust documents and how they can affect the status of the current transaction.

For more information, contact Schuyler Brown Land Title at 217-773-3112 or visit 118 N. Capitol Ave, Suite B in Mt. Sterling.

Tax Deduction Rules for Remote Employees

As the owner and operator of Schuyler Brown Land Title in Mt. Sterling, Illinois, Heidi Scott completes due diligence research into real estate titles and deeds. Heidi Scott is also an Illinois-registered tax attorney and provides tax law guidance to businesses and individuals. The recent surge in employees working from home has raised important questions about business expense tax deductions.

Illinois is one of several jurisdictions that require employers to reimburse employees for any costs related to their work duties. This may include software or internet connection expenses. Employers in the state that require their employees to work from home should review their reimbursement policy and be sure it aligns with the stipulations of the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act.

At the federal level, since remote workers are classified as employees, they do not qualify for any of the deductions afforded to self-employed individuals such as the home office deduction or work-related travel expenses. Given the significant increase in the number of remote workers, it’s expected that the IRS may enact changes to the tax code in the near future to account for this change.

Innocent Spouse Relief program

As an attorney with her own practice in Mt Sterling, Illinois, Heidi Scott has been involved in the legal field for more than 17 years, specializing in real estate and tax law. Heidi Scott also worked for the Illinois Department of Revenue as a tax attorney and played a major role in helping to create the Innocent Spouse Relief program.

The Innocent Spouse Relief program excuses innocent spouses of the responsibility for penalties and taxes that were improperly reported by a spouse. The IRS will determine any taxes that an innocent spouse may be responsible for after filing of Form 8857.

Innocent Spouse Relief qualifications include having filed a joint return in which items have been erroneously or underreported as well as having no knowledge of an understatement of tax and have not transferred property to each other in order to defraud the IRS. Erroneous items can include incorrect credits or deductions as well as any unreported income.

Innocent Spouse Tax Relief

Heidi Scott grew up both in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and in Bundenthal, Germany. Fluent in German, she went on to study international relations at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and then earned a law degree at SIU in Carbondale, Illinois. Today, she works in Mount Sterling, Illinois, as the owner of Schuyler-Brown Land Title and runs her own law offices where she focuses on tax law, real estate, and estate planning. Heidi Scott was instrumental in creating the innocent spouse relief provision.

Many married couples file their taxes together because of the tax benefits they will receive. This generally means that they are also jointly responsible for paying taxes and other consequences regardless of how much money each person makes. The innocent spouse tax relief provision comes into play when one spouse mishandled their taxes by failing to report income or claiming credits or deductions improperly. Applications for this type of relief are one of the top ten reasons for tax litigation in the US.

The innocent spouse provision comes into play only if a joint return has a deficiency that is clearly caused by a spouse’s improper filing. It must also be clear that the spouse applying for relief was unaware of the error being made. Other factors are also taken into account in order to ensure that the spouses or ex-spouses are being treated fairly and reasonably.

Recently the IRS updated the conditions for supplying this type of relief, placing a heavier emphasis on requesting the spouse’s economic position and whether or not the relationship included abuse, among other things. Relief may be granted even more frequently now that these factors will be given greater consideration.