July 31, 2016

Can A Male In A Same Sex Relationship
Deduct In Vitro Fertilization Costs?

          The issue is now before federal court.  When he and his long-term partner decided they wanted children, they paid to have donor eggs fertilized by his sperm with the embryo implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother.  After a revenue agent disallowed his medical expense deduction because he chose to use in vitro fertilization instead of conceiving a child naturally, he filed a complaint in federal court.  Note that the IRS allows couples who are unable to conceive naturally to deduct the cost of in vitro fertilization because the expenses are paid to remedy a medical problem.

18 (Chai) Olympics
After Hitler’s 1936 Summer Olympics

          This summer’s Olympics in Rio will be the 18th Summer Games since the 1936 Olympics, which were held in Berlin, Germany.  It is mostly remembered where the African American sprinter Jesse Owens famously won four gold medals.  It is not so well known that Jewish Americans were left off of the team in order not to offend Herr Hitler.

          The Hebrew word chai celebrates life, and along with some monumental successes, notably Mark Spitz swimming to seven golds in 1972 to set a record that endured until 2008, the shadow of death accompanies the Jewish presence at the world’s grandest athletic event.

          The most notorious pall was cast when Palestinian terrorists kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli Olympians in Munich the day after Spitz’s final triumph.  One of the 11 Israelis killed was a Holocaust survivor. 

          According to Olympics historian Bill Mallon, 49 Olympians are known to have been killed in the Nazis’ concentration, labor and transit camps during the Holocaust.  They competed for 12 countries in 18 sports and two competitions for sports related art in the Summer Games and the Winter Games, and died in 15 camps.  Mallon and his research team did not classify them by religion or ethnicity but the vast majority of the 49 athletes were likely Jewish according to Robert Rozett, the director of libraries at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial to victims of the Holocaust.

          Much of the Netherlands female gymnastics team that won the gold in 1928 was exterminated at the Sobibor death camp in Poland, 4 athletes, and their male coach.

          János Garay, a Hungarian Jew who won a 1928 gold medal, gassed to death in Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.  Also killed at Mauthausen was fencer Oszkar Gerde, a Jew who won a gold medal in team sabre for Hungary in 1908 and 1912.

          The runner up in the 1912 event was Austria whose team included Otto Herschmann who competed in the 1896 and 1906 Olympics.  He also perished in Sobibor.

           Isakas Anolikas, a Jewish road cyclist, who competed in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics was killed in Kovno ghetto. 
 
          Attila Petschauer, a Jewish fencer from Budapest won gold at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics.  In the Davidovka concentration camp in Ukraine, he was tortured at the instigation of another prisoner, a non-Jewish Hungarian named Kalman Cseh von Szent-Katolna who was an equestrian in the 1928 Olympics.  Petschauer was ordered to undress and climb a tree in January 1943; then was doused with water in the freezing air, which killed him.

           Alfred Flatow and Gustav Flatow, cousins from West Prussia were gymnasts in the 1896 Olympics.  They died of starvation in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

           The Olympic Committee did not honor or remember the Israeli athletes in 1972.  It is doubtful they will remember the victims of the Holocaust now.  I thought you might want to ponder this in light of current terrorist events, ISIS acts of atrocity and the world’s refusal to recognize state actions against Jews.  B’nai B’rith Magazine – Athletes Murdered in the Holocaust Not Forgotten Summer 2016 p. 14.

Accumulate $1 Million

           A 30 year old investing $523 monthly and increasing 3% each year in a pretax account earning 8% per year will accumulate $1 million by age 60.

           A 30 year old will need $730 monthly (assuming a 3% annual increase), if the pretax account earns 6% annually in order to accumulate $1 million by age 60.

           A 30 year old investing $523 monthly (assuming a 3% annual increase) in a pre tax account earning 6% annually would accumulate $1 million by age 64 and 4 months.

           What are you waiting for!
          
           As always, if you have any questions about these or any other matters, do not hesitate to call us.
          
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