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Full-Text Articles in Law

Family Limited Partnerships: Discounts, Options, And Disappearing Value, Karen C. Burke, Grayson M.P. Mccouch Nov 2014

Family Limited Partnerships: Discounts, Options, And Disappearing Value, Karen C. Burke, Grayson M.P. Mccouch

Karen Burke

Family partnerships have been become increasingly popular as a means of avoiding estate and gift taxes. As other estate freezing techniques have been closed off by statutory anti-abuse rules, estate planners have increasingly resorted to partnerships as a vehicle for transferring assets within a family at deeply discounted values. Discounts ranging from one-third to over one-half of the value of the underlying assets are routinely claimed, and often allowed, based on lack of marketability and lack of control, even where these disabilities have no lasting or ascertainable economic effect. Nevertheless, the use of family partnerships to suppress value for transfer …


Cobra Strikes Back: Anatomy Of A Tax Shelter, Karen C. Burke, Grayson M.P. Mccouch Nov 2014

Cobra Strikes Back: Anatomy Of A Tax Shelter, Karen C. Burke, Grayson M.P. Mccouch

Karen Burke

Paul Daugerdas gained notoriety for himself and his erstwhile firm, Jenkens & Gilchrist, as the designer of a tax shelter that uses contingent liabilities to generate artificial tax losses on a grand scale. The basic shelter transaction is surprisingly simple. In essence, it uses offsetting options to inflate the basis of property that is distributed by a partnership and then contributed to and sold by another partnership, resulting in a large tax loss without any corresponding economic loss. In principle, this type of shelter could be replicated indefinitely and generate unlimited tax losses. Mr. Daugerdas is by no means unique. …