News Scrapbook 1986

Lovelock NV (Pershing.Co.) Review-Miner (Cir. W. 1,108)

APR 3 0 1986

- 111,~.~0!¥:;,ms I~,,~i!2:~:,: .. 1 ., and are suppo d to make deposits Dec. 31 pf the year, the former cou- of their own taxes, but don't. pie has no choice but to file sepa- "You can get into trouble over rately for that year. If they're still income tax and employee taxes. married on Jan. 1, they can choose, Th IRS gets real te ty about it." but both do have to file. Hun- Huntington figures he's the only tington recommended calculating I wy in the area to make a the tax both ways to see which special practice out of tax laws for works out the best. tho.· headed into divorce. A grad- "The tax schedule is more favor- uate of Ha 't gs College of Law able to those filing joint returns. and a former d puty city attorney, The married person who files sepa- he is a certi 1ed family law rately has the most unfavorable sped list and h a m ter' of h1w schedule of all," Huntington said. degr-ee in tax tion from the Um- "If people are cooperating, they're versity of San Di go. taking money out of the govern- lJSD bas .l)lan for !l divorce tax- ment's pocket legally. ation course for the t II, which "A low-income person married to Huntington ho to teach. a high earner has the bargaining "It's a new specialty," he ex- position to provide the other person plains. "In the last three or four with a favorable tax schedule. If years I've had more cases from we're close in bargainmg and my divorce awyers who don't do tax client can save the other person work and tax lawyers who don't do $10,000 in taxes, I'm going to want divorce work. a piece of that for my client. That's "If I take on a divorce case, ifs real simple." part and parcel with tax problem. . If both part1 sign a joint re- That's the nice thing - all the tax turn, both equally liable for advice you're getting during the payment of t ll tax or any divorce is tax deductible. Make penalties. If, however, the husband sure you ask your lawyer a few tax has filed return~ but failed to questions " report all income - rhaps from But, he cautioned, the IRS hands illegal sources - the Wlf: may be out $1,000 fines if it finds a law er determined an "innoc nt" who improperly bi 1 ling hours as dt..-duc- won't be held responsible if the IRS tible when tuxes weren't part of the finds out. commltation. On the other hand, she may well " Smart lawyers skilled at be held liable if her husband hadn't d1\"0rce work are learning taxes in been filing any returns at all. th1 area and consultmg with Huntmgton said he has a client CP or tax lawyers to make sure who just found out her husband, what they're doing 1s proper," he whom she 1s divorcing, hadn't filed dded. a return in 10 years. "It's got to be So, what tax angles should the resolved, but he doesn't care," he married man and woman consider said. "The IRS doesn't disappear." before untying the knot? Offers • Alimony The one who pays al- Huntington: 1mony can deduct it on taxes; the • Joint or eparate income tax

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Dally Transcript (Cir. D. 7,415)

Jlfle11's P C. B I r. lo8X eg,'ler Of Year' By Brian Hietiert \ \ For the second time in five I years, a teacher from the Per I • shing County School District ha been named evada

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APR 2 8 1986

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P C 8 IR88 pecialist's Advice I ,

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T acher of the Year, and this time the honor belongs to Per sh ng County High chool t cher Anita f isk. Five years ago, Pat Rowe, an el mentary teacher in the d1 tr1ct, was named teacher of the year. On April 21 it was an- nounced that Fisk, a Lovelock native, v.as the 1986 Teacher of t e Year. F1 k aid that children in cl s es want to he di covered a d want to be excited by learn- ing. "I try to help them beli vc in t em. elves," Fi k aid. "l want u ~ ~ - b le in~ that they can cheive anything the • want. I'm a person who believes in p sitive thinking." Fisk said she wants to con- vince society that its children hould be the number one priority. "When society has taken care o its children," Fisk said, "the r ~t of the problems seem to ork themselves out. Once · ren are educated, then a rr ct perspPctive can be t aken on the re t of the world." She said that he oppo. es the millions of dollars pent on d fense, becau e the attitude t aken has been " ...to let educa- tion take care of itself. And that 1s wrong," Fisk said. Fisk ·aid that the aµnounce- m . nt of the award has already anged her life in m 'riy ways. "It has stirred excitement in my classes," she said. "I read t bem the sp ch that I gave at t he PTA banquet nd they are sed that the are part of it. e to a UHILY, a we have something in common." In that speech given April 25 in Reno, Fisk ·aid, "A teacher by mere definition is never alone." And one of the things, she said, the award ha allowed her to do is thank all ho have helped he in her life. "Since I have been in the limelight," she said, "I am star- ting to realize who the people around me are who make a dif- ferenc·e. They are very much a part of it, and a key to my understanding has been a thank you to Pvervone."

In Divorce ULINEREP RD

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evada Teacher of the Year Anita Fisk of Pershing County

1986

High School. According to Fisk, the award also allows her another oppor lunity not afforded before. "It is important to me," she said, "that being in this situa- tion offers me an opportunity lo promote positive educational <>hanges, instead ot someone alway being criti al. I en- couragP change." Fi k also said, "We need to look at the system and g1v cr<>di here er it rs du and 1 r . ugg .,.t· OJ' ," "Teaching is a labor of love," Fisk said. "I'm always looking for the one thing in students that sparks them. Learning is a life-long process, and that spark will carry them through life." Fisk was born in Lovelock in 1949, and then moved to Reno before coming back to Lovelock to attend first grade. She graduated from Pershing Coun- ty High School and went to the Univer.sity of &.A Die!JQ, a col- lege for womer , for one year before transferring to the Universitv of Nevada at Reno. ---·· ... · - ...... volved in politics and recently joined the Democratic Party. And in the last election, Fisk ran for city councilwoman and mavor of Lovelock. ..·1 wanted to be part of the political system of the city I grew up in," Fisk said concern- ing her bid for office. "It was a unique experienre." She is married to Larry Fisk, who works for th armored cal' factory, and has two children, one in high school, the other in 6th grade. She and her husband grew up togethl'r, and she said both sides of the family are long-time Lovelock families. She said that she has many relatives in Nevada and that many of them are teachers. In her leisure time she writes short stories and poetry, and paints and draws. She has had a poem published in Contem- porary Poets. 'Tm not a superwoman," Fisk said. "But with all this award has brought on, I don't know how I'm going to fit it all . " m. In addition to the PTA ban- quet on Friday, Fisk has been •old to keep her bags packed ,·nd be ready to go off on a mo- ment's notice. A presentation wjli be given to her on May 8 at · the high school right after classes, and she will be honored at the next state Board of Education meeting on May 16 in Las Vcgas. She will also represent Nevada in the 1987 National Teacher of the Year award. Larry Stewart, who teaches social science classes at Per- shing County High School, was once-Fisk's teacher, and is now her colleague. "She fits in and she knows the community," Stewart said. "We have a lot of teachers wh grew up in Lovelock. She en joys what she is doing and sh is often here until 5 or 6. That i. a good indication that sh cares." ''In 5th g,ratie T had Ethe Hcsterlee for.,a cacher and sh made lear ing exciting," Fis sai "I-wanted to do that. The in gh school I made .-.

She began at UNR majoring in hist-ory and minoring in English, but graduated with the reverse. She got her masters degree from UNR in secondary education, with an emphasis on curriculum development. Her first teaching aa sign- ment after college wa at Fernley High School, teaching Title One classes; a survival skpls program with emphasis a •1t11~'1Ulnd math. She wa also coach for basketball and volley ball. She then taught at Battle Mountain Junior High School in language arts and art, before moving to the high school and teaching English, Spanish, history and art for three or four years. Fisk began in Lovelock teaching Title One again, then started teaching social studies at Pershing County Junior High School. She moved to the

one who receives it has to pay taxes "As a deduction, alimony is a strategic decis10n. Use it to your best advantage," Huntington ad- v d. "The payment order must be i•1 writing before you can deduct alimony, and you can't back-date the document. If you pay alimony all year without a written agree- ment, you can't deduct it." If a divorce seems likely, he sug- gested turning non-income produc- ing assets, such as long-term bonds or undeveloped land, into income producing assets to be transferred to the spouse who's going to get al- imony. Result: that spouse reaps the income and needs less alimony. He described 1985 tax laws in ef- fect this year as an " Alice in Wonderland set of rules on alimo- ny: totally unintelligible." If ali- mony payment is more than $80') a month, he said, the payment~ must be spread out over six years and not vary by more than $10,000 each year. The point is to prevent a former spouse from hiding under the guise of (deductible) alimony payment the purchase of property (non-deductible) from the "ex." • Capital gains on assets. The family home was purchased for $20,000; now it's worth $300,000. Recently , the couple bought $300,000 worth of stock. When they divorce, she gets the house, he gets the stock. A judge, said Hun- tington, would approve the settle- ment thinking it quite fair and equal. Problem: The wife will have to pay a capital gains tax on the in- creased value of the house. The husband will have no such tax. "Judges have to be educated on taxes, oo," Huntington pointed out. "It's up to lawyers to educate them on each case, and we've got to educate ourselves first." He noted further that those over age 55 may claim a $125,000 ex- emption on the sale of their home. If the sale occurs before the divorce, both partie, mav claim the full exemption. " Its· virtually malpractice not to advise your client to do that," Huntington stated. "AHd if you sell the house, you can roll it over to a new house and avoid capital gains." Further, he noted simple trans- fers of property between a husband and wife during a divorce are now tax-free, but later sale of the prop- erty after the divorce will be taxed. • Children. The Domestic Rela- tions Tax Reform Act provides a $1,000 exemption per child. The parent who has custody may claim not just that exemption, but file an mcome tax return as head of the household, write off child care such as a day care center, and medical costs. Child support payments, Hun- tington said, aren't deductible. On the other hand, the one receiving child support money doesn't have to pay tax on it. "I hope I never see a custody bat- tle over the exemption, but I wouldn't put it past some people," he added. "If you see a divorce coming, it's always intelligent to get advice in advance. They don't do it, but it's a good idea. And they should remember their opposition is not each other in this, but the feds."

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April 30, 1986--Lovelock Review Miner--PagE: 5 ¥'Teacher Of Year---------

menl teacher, because I wanted to conµiwc that excitement.",zf.'§"':) "Many or my teachers an· still teaching and those who don't still live in to,\·n," she said, "and they all ltave been nice to me. My first grade teacher even called up to check on me. So this is everybody's award. It belongs to everyone.'' to being a

contin ied from page 1 high scool three years ago and teaches F nglish, Spanish, jour- nalism, speech and drama. Outside of teaching, Fisk said, "I have lots of clubs. But people in the community relate me to Close-Up through the school." Close-Up, a service club, was started four years ago, Fisk said, and is still going strong. One current project Fisk is involved in is the drama class's p esentation of three one-act plays tonight, April 30, at the Pershing County High School Auditori m. The three one-act plays were selected by the students, Fisk said, and all deal with the topic of love. There is no cost and the plays begin at 7 p.m. Fisk also coaches, and is in- volved in her fourth year with the soccer program through the Lovelock Recreation Depart- ment. Additionally, Fisk is chief negotiator for the teacher's union, and is currently involved in negotiations. "The negotia- tions arc going good," Fisk said. Finally, outside of the classroom, Fisk has been in-

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