Tax Law Commons^™

Saving The Next Superman: An Alternative Approach To The Taxation Of Copyright Termination Rights, Benjamin Newell

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

A Proposal For Integrating The Income And Transfer Taxation Of Trusts, Robert T. Danforth

Robert T. Danforth

Present law fails to integrate the income and transfer (i.e., estate and gift) taxation of trusts; a gratuitous transfer to a trust may be incomplete for income tax purposes (producing a so-called grantor trust, the income of which is taxed to the grantor), but complete for transfer tax purposes. Grantors create trusts that exploit two features of this tax law dichotomy: the grantor's income tax payments on trust income enhance the value of the trust by allowing it to appreciate in value income tax free; and present law provides no basis for subjecting this enhanced value to gift or estate …

Untangling The Strings: Transfer Taxation Of Retained Interests And Powers, Matthew A. Reiber

Akron Law Review

This Article takes a more sanguine approach: it acknowledges the utility of certain portions of these provisions to a functioning transfer tax system, but ultimately concludes that the current statutory scheme is overbroad in reach, clumsy in application, and therefore should be replaced with a single, stand-alone provision. Such a provision would require inclusion of property irrevocably transferred during life in which (a) the transferor retains an economic interest in the property, such as the right to use the property or to receive the income generated by the property, (b) the transferor pays gift tax at the time of transfer …

Elaine Hightower Gagliardi On Proving Estate And Gift Tax Value: Evolving Lessons From Recent Cases, Elaine H. Gagliardi

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

The term, “fair market value,” proves one of the most litigated in the Federal estate and gift tax code. Value lies in the eyes of the appraiser, often resulting in wide disparities between the Service’s and taxpayer’s appraised values.2 The underlying assumptions, and at times the legal principles, on which an appraisal rests can vary greatly based on the particular asset and the appraisal method. The Tax Court claims wide latitude in deciding an asset’s value, reserving the right to draw from each appraisal submitted as it deems appropriate to arrive at ultimate value based on a preponderance of the …

The Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax And Sociological Shifts In Generational Length: Proposing A Generation-Inflation Index For Taxation, Alyssa A. Dirusso

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Planned Parenthood: Adult Adoption And The Right Of Adoptees To Inherit, Richard C. Ausness

ACTEC Law Journal

This Article is concerned with the effect of adult adoptions on the inheritance rights (in the broad sense of that term) of adult adoptees. The Article contends many adult adoption statutes assume the existence of a parent-child relationship in which the adopter is the "parent" and the adoptee is a "child" even though this is not true of all adult adoption cases. In addition, legislatures and courts frequently fail to differentiate between "quasi-familial" adoptions and "strategic" adoptions, particularly where inheritance rights are concerned.

Front Matter

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Medicaid Planning For Long-Term Care: California Style, John A. Miller, Vanessa S. Stroud

ACTEC Law Journal

California's Medicaid program, "Medi-Cal", differs significantly from programs in other states. This article sets out the major distinctions between California's program and other state programs as applied to long term care for disabled seniors. It illustrates the major planning techniques that are employed throughout the country and also those techniques that are available only in California.

Medicaid is the means tested, cooperative state and federal program that pays for much of the nursing home and other long term care in the United States. California's uneven implementation of federal legislation regulating Medicaid over the last several decades has created many challenges …

A Comment On Unification, Grayson M.P. Mccouch

Grayson McCouch

This Article discusses recent proposals aimed at unifying the law of wills and nonprobate transfers. The author notes that default rules of construction present the strongest case for unification, but contends that distinctions between wills and nonprobate transfers remain important in the areas of formalities and restrictions affecting third-party rights. The author concludes that the policy goal should be to allow wills and nonprobate transfers to operate smoothly as complementary methods of deathtime wealth transmission.

The Moving Target Of Tax Reform, Karen C. Burke, Grayson M.P. Mccouch

Grayson McCouch

In 2000, Professor William Turnier proposed a package of three reforms to make the estate tax more “equitable” and “taxpayerfriendly.” All of his proposals—allowing a surviving spouse to inherit a deceased spouse’s unused exemption, replacing the state death tax credit with a deduction, and indexing the exemption for inflation—were eventually enacted. Today, the estate tax remains on the books, but changes in rates and exemptions have severely curtailed its role in the larger federal tax system. Income tax rate reductions for capital gains and dividends have further lightened the tax burden on capital income, and international pressure to reduce the …

The Moving Target Of Tax Reform, Karen C. Burke, Grayson M.P. Mccouch

Karen Burke

In 2000, Professor William Turnier proposed a package of three reforms to make the estate tax more “equitable” and “taxpayerfriendly.” All of his proposals—allowing a surviving spouse to inherit a deceased spouse’s unused exemption, replacing the state death tax credit with a deduction, and indexing the exemption for inflation—were eventually enacted. Today, the estate tax remains on the books, but changes in rates and exemptions have severely curtailed its role in the larger federal tax system. Income tax rate reductions for capital gains and dividends have further lightened the tax burden on capital income, and international pressure to reduce the …

Individual, Couple Or Family? The Unit Of Taxation For Transfer Tax Purposes: A Shifting Focus, Anne-Marie Rhodes

Akron Law Review

This paper examines the shifting focus of the transfer tax system from the perspectives of the articulated primary purpose for the taxes and the appropriate unit of taxation given that purpose. The historical progression shows that as a sense of purpose became less clear, the unit of taxation similarly became less focused.

The Taxation Of Cause-Related Marketing, Terri Lynn Helge

Terri L. Helge

With the economy in turmoil, charitable organizations are looking to nontraditional sources of financing to supplement contributions and fee-based revenues. One potentially lucrative source of revenue stems from cause-related marketing. Cause-related marketing is the public association of a for-profit company with a charitable organization to promote the company’s product or service in order to raise money for the charitable organization. Introduced almost twenty-five years ago, cause-related marketing has now become a $1 billion a year industry. Cause-related marketing has evolved beyond mere use of a charitable organization’s name to an apparent union for the purpose of promoting products that carry …

Taxation Expatrition: Will The Fast Act Stop Wealthy Americans From Leaving The United States?, Beckett G. Cantley

Akron Law Review

In the wake of September 11, 2001, several influential lawmakers have sought to pass tax legislation that would reduce the tax benefits that may result from an American citizen expatriating to a foreign nation. According to these congressional critics, certain wealthy American citizens are willing to relinquish their United States citizenship to save taxes (“tax expatriates”). The last major attempt to prevent tax expatriation was undertaken in 1995 when Internal Revenue Code (“I.R.C.”) § 877 was enacted. Several congressional critics have charged that I.R.C. § 877 is being easily circumvented by tax expatriates and their advisors. To stem the tide …

The Contemporary Tax Journal Volume 5, No. 1 – Spring/Summer 2015

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

An Introduction To Conservation Easements In The United States: A Simple Concept And A Complicated Mosaic Of Law, Nancy Mclaughlin, Federico Cheever

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The idea of a conservation easement – restrictions on the development and use of land designed to protect the land’s conservation or historic values – can be relatively easily understood. More significant and more challenging is the complex body of state and federal laws that shapes the creation, funding, tax treatment, enforcement, modification, and termination of conservation easements.

The explosion in the number of conservation easements over the past four decades has made them one of the most popular land protection mechanisms in the United States. The National Conservation Easement Database estimates that the total number of acres encumbered by …

Tax Planning: Foreign Investment In United States Real Property, William H. Newton Iii

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Tax Reform Proposals On A Gift Tax On The Transfer Of Property By Nonresidents, Daze Swift Lee

University of Massachusetts Law Review

This Note raises taxation issues pertaining to a gift tax on the transfer of property by nonresidents under current United States tax rules. It further illustrates patterns and trends to evade a gift tax using transaction maneuvers. These issues are defined in three categories: a gift tax on the transfer of property situated only within the United States by a nonresident, no gift tax on the transfer of intangible assets, and transferee liability. In response to such issues, this Note calls for corresponding proposals to resolve gift taxation problems. It proposes that a gift tax should be imposed on the …

Annual Survey Of Developments In International Trade Law: 1984, Georgia Journal Of International And Comparative Law

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Family Values: An Evaluation Of Internal Revenue Code Sections 2703 And 2704(B), David Berke

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

With Marriage On The Decline And Cohabitation On The Rise, What About Marital Rights For Unmarried Partners?, Lawrence W. Waggoner

ACTEC Law Journal

This article draws attention to a cultural shift in the formation of families that has been and is taking place in this country and in the developed world.

Part I uses recent government data to trace the decline of marriage and the rise of cohabitation in the United States. Between 2000 and 2010, the population grew by 9.71%, but the husband and wife households only grew by 3.7%, while the unmarried couple households grew by 41.4%. A counter-intuitive finding is that the early 21st century data show little correlation between the marriage rate and economic conditions.

Because of the Supreme …

Our Wealth Transfer Tax System -- A View From The 100th Year, Carlyn S. Mccaffrey, John C. Mccaffrey

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Dueling Transferors Problem In Generation-Skipping Transfer Taxation, Austin Bramwell, Sean R. Weissbart

ACTEC Law Journal

Whether a transfer of property is subject to generation-skipping transfer ("GST") tax depends in part on the identity of the individual who is considered the "transferor." Yet a deep uncertainty as to the identity of the transferor may arise when a beneficiary of a trust assigns his or her beneficial interest to another. Taxpayers, commentators, and the Internal Revenue Service have proposed three possible theories for resolving the question of who is the transferor in those circumstances. A careful analysis of relevant authorities reveals that only one of these theories -- namely, that an assignment of a beneficial interest has …

The Family Llc: A New Approach To Insuring Dynastic Wealth, Evan M. Purcell

Evan M Purcell

No abstract provided.

Change And Continuity In Fringe Benefit Taxation: Seeking Sense And Sensibility, Richard L. Kaplan, Dawson J. Price

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

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.

Portability, Marital Wealth Transfers, And The Taxable Unit, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Prior to 2011, the most efficient estate tax planning for married couples required a minimal level of asset equalization. In order to take maximum advantage of all existing wealth transfer tax exemptions and credits, each spouse needed to own, in an estate tax sense, enough assets to be able to fully utilize the estate tax credit or applicable exemption. This changed with the enactment of estate tax portability in the Economic Growth and Economic Recovery and Relief Act of 2011, which became permanent under the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. “Portability” refers to the ability of a surviving spouse …

The Moving Target Of Tax Reform, Karen C. Burke, Grayson M.P. Mccouch

UF Law Faculty Publications

In 2000, Professor William Turnier proposed a package of three reforms to make the estate tax more “equitable” and “taxpayerfriendly.” All of his proposals—allowing a surviving spouse to inherit a deceased spouse’s unused exemption, replacing the state death tax credit with a deduction, and indexing the exemption for inflation—were eventually enacted. Today, the estate tax remains on the books, but changes in rates and exemptions have severely curtailed its role in the larger federal tax system. Income tax rate reductions for capital gains and dividends have further lightened the tax burden on capital income, and international pressure to reduce the …