Kentucky Estates: articles on income tax planning
The expense of college for children and grandchildren is a troubling issue for almost all of my clients. I think this is because at an instinctual level, long before crunching any numbers, clients know what the charts below show: college costs have gone truly exponential in the last one and a half generations, far outstripping increases […]
In the late 60s and early 70s at Bing Nursery School on Stanford’s campus, Walter Mischel conducted the famous “Marshmallow Experiment” on delayed gratification. Preschoolers were offered a choice between one marshmallow or cookie right away, or two if they waited about 15 minutes. When researchers tracked down study participants as adults, they found that the […]
If you have been working since the late ‘90s, you have probably collected some great stories about exercising stock options and other equity-based compensation. Some are unqualified success stories, like the time my college roommate’s father pulled up outside the college dorm in a brand-new zippy BMW convertible (top down, naturally), and told us to […]
In my practice, I have found that a majority of my clients who create significant wealth do so through ownership of a private business or a concentrated stock position in a publicly traded company. What that means for you is that if you haven’t yet started a business or taken an ownership position in one, […]
If you are a KYEstates reader in a state where it’s cold in the winter, you have probably seen them: people who seem to live in your own neighborhood and golf at your club, but have a car with a Florida license plate. Who are those people? They’re the lucky ones: the Snowbirds who get a […]
Families at all levels of wealth commonly include charitable giving as a part of their estate plans. This is gratifying for the families, and absolutely essential to maintaining and building excellence in so many civic areas, including hospitals, social services, conservation, the arts, and education. It’s also true, however, that the business cultures of the […]
As we approach the Congressional midterm elections (still with no action on the estate tax), one often hears opinions in certain quarters that the government isn’t efficient. Studiously expressing no opinion about these claims generally, KYEstates is pleased to report that they’re untrue in at least one respect: the IRS has become very efficient at […]
At KYEstates, we’re happiest reporting on taxpayer victories, but if we have to report a loss, it mitigates our disappointment when the case is interesting. Anschutz v. Comm’r, 135 T.C. No. 5 (July 22, 2010), is that sort of case: an interesting taxpayer loss. In this instance, a very expensive taxpayer loss (likely exceeding $21 […]
Anyone who has been following Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings is up to speed on the judicial activism/strict construction debate. Strict construction of an exclusion from taxable income powered a notable win for the IRS in Gates v. Comm’r, 135 T.C. 1 (July 1, 2010), a very interesting income tax case that will have implications for private […]
On the estate tax front, it’s been a Macbeth/Faulkner fortnight in Congress – full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Meanwhile, however, the clock is also ticking on expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, potentially affecting many private clients and business owners. To that end, readers may be quite interested in the […]
Although normal activity in much of Louisville seems to be temporarily suspended this weekend due to one of the most impressive logistical enterprises since the Berlin Airlift, the children’s swimming City Meet, the T&E Community still needs tax updates, and KYEstates is happy to share this report on Matthies v. Comm’r, 134 T.C. No. 6 (Feb. 22, 2010). In Matthies, […]
It is not often that the GWOT affects the world of T&E law, but the Supreme Court’s June 21 6-3 opinion in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 561 U.S. ____ (2010) is an exception to the general rule. The opinion upheld the Patriot Act provision providing for fines and up to 15 years’ imprisonment for persons […]