Kentucky Estates: articles on estate tax planning
This series on how grantor retained annuity trusts can be applied in situations with upside business potential presented an overview of how GRATs work in Part 1. Part 2 presented a case study of how an “Entrepreneurial GRAT” could be used to substantially improve the net-of-tax risk-adjusted return for a risky venture with a new […]
As we saw in Part 1 of this series, a grantor retained annuity trust (or “GRAT”) can be a very effective way to remove the government as a 40% silent partner in the potential upside of a business venture in several types of circumstances. In the pre-2010 regime of low estate tax exemptions, two common […]
The pursuit of wealth has long been part of the American Dream, and a positive feature of the current $5.34 million estate tax exemption (high by historic standards) is that entrepreneurs have more “run room” before the Federal government becomes a 40% silent partner in the upside of all the work, creativity, striving, and risk […]
A decade ago, when the estate tax exemption was much lower, the irrevocable life insurance trust (or “ILIT”) was a component of many (or even most) tax-aware estate plans. It was common for physicians, attorneys, architects, engineers, and corporate executives to have insurance trusts, without necessarily knowing why that was so. Reassured by their attorneys […]
You can tell your readers care about you when for four weeks you don’t post, and they begin to inquire after your health. Thank you, and your publisher is pleased to report that he is alive and very well! This has been a very busy month. No one seems to have gotten the memo that […]
It may be a lazy summer day in the Eastern United States, but not on the transfer tax news front. The Hill reports here and Pat Lynch’s blog reports here that Senators Kyl and Lincoln introduced legislation late on Tuesday, July 13 that would require the Senate Finance Committee to amend to amend H.R. 5297 […]
KYEstates readers, thanks for your patience. Yes, post volume has been down. That’s not because the transfer tax world has suddenly become boring – perish the thought. Rather, it’s been an extraordinarily busy month. First, your publisher visited his brother in Brooklyn and then went to his 10th Reunion. That was a little tough, because […]
Although we wish it were otherwise, taxpayers don’t always win FLP cases. In fairness, the IRS ought to win a case from time to time, given that they’re usually the party making the decision to settle or litigate. When the facts are as unfavorable to the taxpayer as they were in Estate of Malkin v. […]
It’s possible KYEstates readers are focused on the Paul–Grayson Senate race, or the Louisville mayoral race (see latest polls here, and here, respectively). If you want a break from politics, however, we can take you back to the normal state of things (i.e., all transfer taxes, all the time) with a report on a truly resounding taxpayer […]
KYEstates readers, do you miss the halcyon days of 2003, when Howard Dean told us that “you have the power“? We can’t bring those days back, but we are happy to report that in 2010: You have the power…to let your own voice be heard about what is going to happen with the estate tax. […]
As other T&E bloggers have capably noted (e.g., Gary Beyer here and Hani Sarji here), the House passed H.R. 4849 (the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010) on March 24. The vote was 246-178 in favor of the bill (see the full report on the vote from the New York Times here). KYEstates alerted […]
KYEstates issued a high-stakes challenge here in our discussion of the taxpayer FLP win in Estate of Petter v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo. 2009-280, 2009 WL 4598137 (U.S. Tax Ct. 2009). We said: Count not your day a loss: you have now read the phrase glommed onto in a Federal court’s opinion. Find that phrase in another […]