Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Estate tax (13)
- Gift tax (13)
- FLP (9)
- Taxation (7)
- Charitable deduction (6)
-
- Family limited partnership (6)
- Valuation (6)
- Income tax (5)
- Partnerships (5)
- Limited liability companies (4)
- Procter (4)
- S corporations (4)
- Tax (4)
- Annual exclusion (3)
- Business entities (3)
- Closely held businesses (3)
- Family LLC (3)
- H.R. 4137 (3)
- LLC (3)
- LLC's (3)
- Marital deduction (3)
- Subchaper K (3)
- Subchapter S (3)
- American Bar Endowment (2)
- Claim against the estate (2)
- Compliance (2)
- Conditional gift (2)
- Congress (2)
- Deduction (2)
- Defined value clause (2)
- Publication Year
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 30 of 53
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Negative Capital Account Maze, Walter D. Schwidetzky
The Negative Capital Account Maze, Walter D. Schwidetzky
All Faculty Scholarship
Outside Hubert I and Hubert II, there has been little discussion of negative capital accounts in the tax context and almost no discussion in the nontax context. Nontax law, however, is critically important. This report provides an integrated discussion of the application of tax and nontax law to negative capital accounts.
One of the challenges in writing this report is that it requires a discussion of both the at-risk rules of section 465 and the debt allocation rules of section 752. Complex issues involving sections 465 and 752 and their interaction are worthy of their own articles. Indeed, others have …
Partnership Tax Allocations: The Basics, Walter D. Schwidetzky
Partnership Tax Allocations: The Basics, Walter D. Schwidetzky
All Faculty Scholarship
This article endeavors to help practitioners who are not partnership tax allocation experts identify when they should consult with those with that expertise. The partnership-allocation Treasury Regulations have been called "a creation of prodigious complexity ... essentially impenetrable to all but those with the time, talent, and determination to become thoroughly prepared experts on the subject." This article is written for those, to date at least, without that time and determination. At the same time, the article provides an introduction to the partnership tax allocation rules for those contemplating making the requisite investment of time and determination.
The term "partnership," …
Permitting Abused Spouses To Claim The Earned Income Tax Credit In Separate Returns, Fred B. Brown
Permitting Abused Spouses To Claim The Earned Income Tax Credit In Separate Returns, Fred B. Brown
All Faculty Scholarship
The earned income tax credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit for federal income tax purposes that is generally available to lowincome taxpayers who have income from either employment or selfemployment. The EITC is currently the largest government program providing aid to low-income individuals. The subsidy provided by the EITC is of particular importance to individuals subjected to domestic abuse, given that such individuals are often impoverished, and the EITC can provide them with the financial resources necessary to improve, endure, or leave an abusive relationship.
Despite the importance of the EITC, married individuals subjected to domestic abuse face serious …
Classifying Federal Taxes For Constitutional Purposes, Evgeny Magidenko
Classifying Federal Taxes For Constitutional Purposes, Evgeny Magidenko
University of Baltimore Law Review
In 2012, ruling on a challenge to President Obama’s landmark healthcare legislation, the Supreme Court upheld the legislation’s individual mandate penalty as a tax. The Court’s decision relied in part on the finding that the penalty was not a direct tax and so its lack of apportionment was not fatal. This was the first Supreme Court case in decades to address direct taxes, but regrettably it provided only a cursory examination of the subject. It did, however, serve as a useful reminder that the constitutional analysis of taxes is not a foregone conclusion and confirmed that there is a tenable …
A Simpler Verifiable Gift Tax, Wendy G. Gerzog
A Simpler Verifiable Gift Tax, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
The purpose of this article is to propose a simpler verifiable gift tax, to reassert basic principles of transfer taxes, to encourage simple, outright gifts, and to eliminate some of the major abuses in the current gift tax regime. To accomplish these goals, the proposed tax would simplify gift completion rules, adopt a hard-to-complete rule of transfer taxation, reduce the annual exclusion while expanding the consumption exclusion, and employ loss of preference inducements to increase gift tax compliance.
Integrating Subchapters K And S And Beyond, Walter D. Schwidetzky
Integrating Subchapters K And S And Beyond, Walter D. Schwidetzky
All Faculty Scholarship
This Article builds upon a similar, lengthier effort that I published in the Tax Lawyer in 2009. While there is overlap, this Article contains much new material. Important case law and tax proposals from the House Ways and Means Committee have come out in the interim. Due to space limitations, unlike my Tax Lawyer effort, this Article attempts to avoid prolixity. It assumes the reader has good knowledge of both Subchapters S and K and the tax entity selection process. If you are not that reader, a review of my Tax Lawyer article or Professor Mann's article in this symposium …
Federalism And Phantom Economic Rights In Nfib V. Sibelius, Matthew Lindsay
Federalism And Phantom Economic Rights In Nfib V. Sibelius, Matthew Lindsay
All Faculty Scholarship
Few predicted that the constitutional fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would turn on Congress’ power to lay and collect taxes. Yet in NFIB v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court upheld the centerpiece of the Act — the minimum coverage provision (MCP), commonly known as the “individual mandate” — as a tax. The unexpected basis of the Court’s holding has deflected attention from what may prove to be the decision’s more constitutionally consequential feature: that a majority of the Court agreed that Congress lacked authority under the Commerce Clause to penalize people who decline to purchase health insurance. …
What's Wrong With A Federal Inheritance Tax?, Wendy G. Gerzog
What's Wrong With A Federal Inheritance Tax?, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
Scholars have proposed a federal inheritance tax as an alternative to the current federal transfer tax, but there are serious flaws with that idea. In existing inheritance tax systems, those problems include: (1) different tax rates and exemptions based on the decedent’s relationship to the beneficiary; (2) the lack of a tax on lifetime gratuitous transfers, including gifts with retained interests or control; and (3) the persistence of most current valuation distortion abuses. In any inheritance tax model, moreover, there would be significantly decreased compliance rates and increased administrative costs because by focusing on the transferees instead of the transferor, …
Pass-Through Entity Reform: Is A Major Overhaul Necessary?, Walter D. Schwidetzky
Pass-Through Entity Reform: Is A Major Overhaul Necessary?, Walter D. Schwidetzky
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Van Alen: A Reasonable Consistency, Wendy G. Gerzog
Van Alen: A Reasonable Consistency, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Van Alen, the Tax Court held that the duty of consistency required that two of the decedent’s children use the section 2032A basis valuation figures to determine gain on the sale of their interest in the decedent’s ranch, which was left to them in trust. The siblings had argued that their stepmother erroneously completed their father’s estate tax return.
Promise Vs. Performance: Why Public Subsidies Of Private Development Are Not Likely To Produce Fair Returns To The Taxpaying Public, Marc Knapp
University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development
On September 10, 2013, the Baltimore City Council gave final approval to Harbor Point, a $1 billion multi-use project to be built on a vacant, remediated brownfield that juts into Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Like many urban development or redevelopment projects, Harbor Point will be supported by significant taxpayer subsidies. Between a $107 million direct investment in project-related infrastructure largely parks that will surround the to-be-built offices, shops and residences, and a waterfront promenade - along with a mixed bag of real estate and income tax incentives, the visible public support to Harbor Point will exceed $200 million, 20% of projected …
Graev: Conditional Facade Easement, Wendy G. Gerzog
Graev: Conditional Facade Easement, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Graev v. Commissioner, the Tax Court decided whether the taxpayers’ donations of a facade easement and cash contributions were conditional gifts and therefore disallowable as charitable deductions under the requirements of the regulations. The court reviewed the facts to determine whether the condition was allowed because it was “so remote as to be negligible.” The taxpayers argued that case law at the time of the donation allowed for a donation of between 10 and 15 percent of the value of the property, and that they had deducted a value constituting 11 percent of the property’s appraised value; that the …
Koons: Interest Deduction And Flp Valuation Practice Pointers, Wendy G. Gerzog
Koons: Interest Deduction And Flp Valuation Practice Pointers, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
The Tax Court's Koons decision explains the rules for allowing an estate to deduct interest payments, and it details how the court arrived at a determination of the value of a family limited liability company interest.
Valuing Fractional Interests In Art For Estate Tax Purposes, Wendy G. Gerzog
Valuing Fractional Interests In Art For Estate Tax Purposes, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
It is difficult to value fractional interests in art because there is virtually no market in those interests. Nevertheless, the Tax Court in Estate of Elkins valued the decedent’s fractional interests in multiple artworks, which the decedent and his children highly cherished. First, the court addressed the restricted agreements under section 2703 and then the court determined the value of decedent’s interests in the art.
When Sommers Are Winters: Do Blanks Denote Revocability?, Wendy G. Gerzog
When Sommers Are Winters: Do Blanks Denote Revocability?, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Sommers, ruling on both parties’ motions for partial summary judgment, the Tax Court dealt with claims of issue preclusion and collateral estoppel, equitable apportionment, the completion of gifts of limited liability company interests, and retained powers that would cause estate tax inclusion.
Two aspects of Sommers held particular interest for me. The first is that the parties appear to be arguing their opponent’s conventional position. The second is that the court grappled with whether the blanks left in the gift documents were immaterial to gift completion; however, the court did not address whether the decedent’s completed gifts qualified for …
Wimmer Wins Flp Annual Exclusions, Wendy G. Gerzog
Wimmer Wins Flp Annual Exclusions, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Wimmer, the Tax Court held that the income stream from a taxpayer’s gifts of family limited partnership interests was eligible for the annual exclusion. By comparing the income interest in the partnership’s dividend paying marketable securities to the income interest in a trust, the court made Wimmer a winner. But does the opinion logically lead to that conclusion?
Not All Defined Value Clauses Are Equal, Wendy G. Gerzog
Not All Defined Value Clauses Are Equal, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
Defined value clauses used to value nonmarketable family limited partnership (FLP) interests create valuation distortions and other public policy issues. This paper describes these abuses and proposes the employment of restrictions similar to those applied to pecuniary formula marital deduction clauses.
The article explains how pecuniary formula marital deduction provisions created valuation distortions by allowing for undervaluation of the marital share that were remedied by the IRS’s Rev. Proc. 64-19 and the enactment of section 2056(b)(10). The article analyzes recent case law expanding the use of defined value clauses into the FLP area and criticizes the courts for not applying …
Facade Easement: Inexpert Valuation, Wendy G. Gerzog
Facade Easement: Inexpert Valuation, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
The article discusses the recent Dunlap decision, which involved facade easement transfers to the National Architectural Trust, a qualified charity that preserves building easements across the country, although most are in New York City. Although allowing a deduction for their cash contributions to NAT to enforce the easement and not finding any penalties applicable, the Tax Court held that despite two valuation reports written by accepted valuation experts, the taxpayers had not established any value for their easement.
Wandering Far Afield With Defined Value Clauses, Wendy G. Gerzog
Wandering Far Afield With Defined Value Clauses, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
The Wandry decision extends the application of defined value clauses beyond those family limited partnership cases that transfer any excess value to a charity. In Wandry, the Tax Court reads Procter narrowly and ignores the fundamental rationale of Robinette.
Defined Value Clauses And Fair Market Value, Wendy G. Gerzog
Defined Value Clauses And Fair Market Value, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Hendrix the Tax Court considered the issues of whether defined value clauses were the result of arm’s-length transactions and whether they were void as against public policy. The underlying dispute was whether the taxpayers’ transfers of the John H. Hendrix Co. stock were valued at fair market value. With a decision favoring the taxpayers, the defined value clauses in both McCord and Hendrix impede the accurate valuation of taxable gifts to family members and of deductible charitable gifts.
Boomer-Ang Eldercare: Deductible Claim?, Wendy G. Gerzog
Boomer-Ang Eldercare: Deductible Claim?, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In this article, Gerzog discusses Estate of Olivo, in which the Tax Court determined the deductibility under section 2053 of a claim against the decedent’s estate for eldercare services provided by a family member.
Flp Loss, But Crummey Win, Wendy G. Gerzog
Flp Loss, But Crummey Win, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Turner the Tax Court determined that section 2036 applied to the decedent’s transfers of assets to his family limited partnership but that the insurance premiums he paid indirectly to his insurance trust qualified for the annual exclusion.
The New Super-Charged Pat (Power Of Appointment Trust), Wendy G. Gerzog
The New Super-Charged Pat (Power Of Appointment Trust), Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
This article proposes to repeal the QTIP provisions in order to collect revenue now for transfers that are essentially transfers to third parties and not to the decedent's spouse. Because there are advantages of increased flexibility attendant to a QTIP as opposed to a PAT, this article proposes to take those repealed QTIP benefits and attach them to the PAT, which would greatly enhance that marital deduction trust form. A super-charged PAT would thereby be able to preserve the decedent's GST tax exemption (like a reverse QTIP), create a decedent's by-pass trust by allowing a PAT (or a partial PAT) …
Excluding Expert Valuation Testimony, Wendy G. Gerzog
Excluding Expert Valuation Testimony, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Boltar, a case in which the Tax Court addressed the valuation of a conservation easement, the court ruled on the admissibility of expert testimony.
Shapiro: Palimony And The Estate Tax, Wendy G. Gerzog
Shapiro: Palimony And The Estate Tax, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Estate of Shapiro, the Ninth Circuit held that an individual had a valid palimony claim under Nevada state law. However, the issue was whether the decedent’s estate qualified for a deduction for that claim under federal estate tax law.
Linton Reversed: Indirect Gifts And The Step Transaction Doctrine, Wendy G. Gerzog
Linton Reversed: Indirect Gifts And The Step Transaction Doctrine, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
The Ninth Circuit recently reversed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the government in Linton on the issues of indirect gift and the applicability of the step transaction doctrine. The circuit court’s analysis focused on the taxpayers’ donative intent. With that emphasis, the Ninth Circuit remanded the case to the district court to determine the sequence of the relevant transactions.
Morgens: More Qtip Mischief, Wendy G. Gerzog
Morgens: More Qtip Mischief, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Morgens, the court ruled in favor of the government that section 2035(b) applied to the gift taxes paid by the qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trust beneficiaries to gross up the widow’s estate by that amount. Because the surviving (or donee) spouse must be taxed on the underlying property over which she has no ownership rights, Congress enacted section 2207A to allow the second spouse to recover from the beneficiaries of the property the transfer taxes relating to her gift or estate inclusion. However, the court held that section 2207A did not shift the gift tax liability to those …
Flp In The Black, Wendy G. Gerzog
Flp In The Black, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
In Estate of Black, because the Tax Court held the Blacks' transfers fell within the bona fide sales exception of section 2036, they were successful at avoiding the application of the provision. Thus, they were able to obtain valuation discounts for their transfers of property (mostly marketable securities) to their son and grandchildren. The court also decided the marital trust funding valuation date issue in the executor's favor and allowed almost half of the claimed administrative expense deductions.
Check-The-Box Regs And Gift Tax Discounts, Wendy G. Gerzog
Check-The-Box Regs And Gift Tax Discounts, Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
This article discusses the recent Tax Court decision in Pierre and the effect for gift tax purposes of an entity’s classification made under the check-the-box regulations. The court was split on what those regulations mean when they state that an entity is to be disregarded ‘‘for federal tax purposes.’’
The Times They Are Not A-Changin': Reforming The Charitable Split-Interest Rules (Again), Wendy G. Gerzog
The Times They Are Not A-Changin': Reforming The Charitable Split-Interest Rules (Again), Wendy G. Gerzog
All Faculty Scholarship
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 …