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Estates and Trusts

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Income tax

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The Times They Are Not A-Changin': Reforming The Charitable Split-Interest Rules (Again), Wendy G. Gerzog Jan 2010

The Times They Are Not A-Changin': Reforming The Charitable Split-Interest Rules (Again), Wendy G. Gerzog

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The article reviews the history of the tax treatment of charitable split interest gifts, explains the inequities that Congress both cured and generated in its 1969 reforms, and proposes solutions that are consistent with the goals of the 1969 legislation. The article discusses variations in the 1969 definition of a charitable split interest, which, because of the enacted statutory language, applies in instances where there is no abuse potential. The inequity produced by that definition penalizes the donor and flouts the rationale behind the 1969 legislation. By contrast, the creation of some required statutory forms of charitable split interests in …


Families For Tax Purposes: What About The Steps, Wendy G. Gerzog Jul 2009

Families For Tax Purposes: What About The Steps, Wendy G. Gerzog

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At least 4.4 million families in the U.S. are blended ones that include step-children and step-parents. For tax purposes, these steps receive preferential treatment for their status because they are on the one hand included as family members for many income tax benefit sections, but on the other hand excluded as family members for business entity attribution purposes and for gift and estate tax anti-abuse provisions. In the interests of fairness and uniformity, steps should be treated as family members for all tax purposes where steps have in fact voluntarily acted as their biological or adoptive counterparts, both when such …


From The Greedy To The Needy, Wendy G. Gerzog Jan 2008

From The Greedy To The Needy, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In some instances when the taxpayer makes a charitable donation, the loss of revenue to the government, and the corresponding gain to the taxpayer, far exceeds the benefit to the charity. Some of these losses may be generated by government sanctioned complex transactions and even government created devices. This article proposes a new way to examine "quid pro quo" charitable gifts that reflects the rationale for the charitable deduction.The article analyzes various charitable donations in terms of the dollars gained by the taxpayer, the dollars lost by the government, and the dollars received by the charity. After considering a sliding …