Law Commons^™

The Danger Of A Label: How The Legal Interpretation Of "Care Custodian" Can Frustrate A Testator's Wish To Make A Gift To A Personal Friend, Kirsten M. Kwasneski

Golden Gate University Law Review

California Probate Code Section 21350 provides a presumption of invalidity when an elder or dependent adult makes a donative transfer to his or her care custodian. Part I of this Comment examines the climate in which Section 21350 was enacted, including a summary of the law that traditionally governed contests of testamentary transfers on the grounds of undue influence prior to the statute's enactment. Part II argues that the statutory definition of "care custodian" should encompass only professional care custodians. Part III supplies the textual amendments that should be made to provide sufficient clarification of the term's meaning. Part IV …

Grown-Up Income Shifting: Yesterday's Kiddie Tax Is Not Enough, Samuel D. Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

In 1986, concerned that wealthy parents were sheltering some of their income from taxes by giving some portion of their securities portfolios to their children, Congress enacted the “kiddie tax,” which taxes a child’s passive income at the child’s parents’ tax rate. By doing so, Congress intended to reduce tax-motivated income-shifting. Since its passage, however, there has been little serious consideration of whether the kiddie tax successfully prevents the targeted income-shifting.

This Article reexamines the kiddie tax and concludes that it is both over- and underbroad. The kiddie tax subjects all of a child’s passive income, not just income resulting …

Are Gift Demand Loans Of Tangible Property Subject To Gift Tax ?, Joseph M. Dodge

Joseph M Dodge

The publicity surrounding a prominent political figure’s rent-free use of a portion of a friend’s house in Washington, D.C., has raised the issue of whether the rent-free use of tangible property is a gift for federal gift tax purposes. The 1984 case of Dickman v. Commissioner, 465 U.S. 330 (1984), involving an interest-free demand loan of money, intimated that such might be the case, but there has apparently been no effort by the IRS to enforce such a position. The federal gift tax will be the only federal transfer tax left standing if the estate tax and generation-skipping tax are …

Reforming The Kiddie Tax, Samuel D. Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

In 1986, concerned that wealthy parents were sheltering some of their income from taxes by giving some portion of their securities portfolios to their children, Congress enacted the “kiddie tax,” which taxes a child’s passive income at the child’s parents’ tax rate. By doing so, Congress intended to reduce tax-motivated income-shifting. Since its passage, however, there has been little serious consideration of whether the kiddie tax successfully prevents the targeted income-shifting.

This Article reexamines the kiddie tax and concludes that it is both over- and underbroad. The kiddie tax subjects all of a child’s passive income, not just income resulting …

Gifts And The Income Tax—An Enduring Puzzle, Richard Schmalbeck

Law and Contemporary Problems

Schmalbeck explains that there are four policy options for the combined income tax treatment of a donor-donee pair, and that the best choice among the options is not self-evident. He notes that the current income tax treatment of noncharitable gifts originated with the 1913 income tax. The historical record provides no clues as to why Congress opted for that approach in 1913. As frustrating as this may be, it is an example of an important phenomenon in the development of the income tax. A number of crucial structural decisions made in the early days of the income tax, which continue …

Book Review - Richard Hyland's Gifts: A Study In Comparative Law, Iris Goodwin

Scholarly Works

This essay is a lengthy review of Richard Hyland's Gifts: A Study in Comparative Law (OUP, 2009), a masterpiece of comparative law scholarship.

The Coming Showdown Over University Endowments: Enlisting The Donors, Sarah E. Waldeck

Fordham Law Review

This Essay focuses on the discordance between universities with particularly large endowments and what is occurring in the rest of higher education, particularly with respect to skyrocketing tuition and a growing institutional wealth gap. The Essay considers absolute endowment values, the amount of endowment per student, and expense-endowment ratios at sixty private universities. It concludes that a small number of schools have an excess endowment, and then provides a convenient proxy for determining when an endowment is so large that it should receive less preferential tax treatment. The Essay then considers the effects that large endowments have at their home …

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

School Naming Rights And The First Amendment’S Perfect Storm, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

In the past five years, public schools across the country have begun to explore a new avenue of fundraising: selling naming rights to school facilities. The popularity and monetary value of these sales, however, only highlight the importance of the First Amendment concerns they raise. This Article uses school naming rights as a lens through which to examine the conflicts between government speech, commercial speech, and forum analysis, three categories of First Amendment analysis that are simultaneously and problematically implicated by school naming rights sales. Courts and scholars have long noted the internal ambiguities within these three categories, but have …

The Restricted Gift Life Cycle, Or What Comes Around Goes Around, John K. Eason

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Class Gifts Under The Restatement (Third) Of Property, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

The new Restatement (Third) of Property (officially the Restatement (Third) of Property: Wills and Other Donative Transfers), in tandem with the Restatement (Third) of Trusts, is systematically proceeding through the whole field of wills, will substitutes, trusts, and estates. Both of the new Restatements should prove to be handy resources for trust and estate lawyers, not only in preparing to argue cases at both trial and appellate levels, but also in the everyday work of drafting and construing dispositive provisions in wills, trusts, and other types of donative documents. Each Restatement section is followed by a set of Comments explaining …

Is A Gift Forever?, William I. Miller

Articles

What are the rules regarding gifts you receive? Can you give them away? If so, must you conceal that you have done so from the original giver? Or is there a statute of limitations, after which any right the original giver has to feel wronged or to burden you with guilt for undervaluing it by giving it away rightly expires? Even an heirloom might exhaust its sacredness. Sometimes the sacred has a half-life, as might be the case, for instance, with your grandmother’s dining set. Can the giver ask for his gifts back if you try to give them away? …

Subcommittee Membership, Governor's Task Force On Ethics Reform

Governor Richardson's Task Force on Ethics Reform (2006)

This is a list of subcommittee members of Governor Richardson's Task Force on Ethics Reform.

Discussion Group Report: Governmental Conduct, Hilary Tompkins, Gaye Kernan, Maralyn Budke, Justin Miller

Governor Richardson's Task Force on Ethics Reform (2006)

Governmental conduct' covers behavior by a wide range of individuals, engaging in a broad scope of activities, and is addressed by a variety of statutes, rules, and codes of conduct. This report concerns the conduct of all persons occupying a position of public trust in New Mexico: elected officials, appointed officials, and classified and exempt state employees. All of these individuals owe important ethical duties to the citizens of New Mexico. Laws and rules regulating government conduct are largely concerned with 1) restrictions on the behavior of individual actors, and 2) disclosure and reporting of government activities so that those …

Governmental Conduct, Hilary Tompkins, Gaye Kernan, Maralyn Budke, Justin Miller

Governor Richardson's Task Force on Ethics Reform (2006)

This presentation covers the following issues of governmental conduct: gifts, nepotism, lobbying, and conduct of government officials.

Subcommittee Report On Legislative Compensation, Gary E. Carruthers, Maralyn Budke, Jim Noel, Barbara Brazil

Governor Richardson's Task Force on Ethics Reform (2006)

Currently, under Section 1-19-29.1 NMSA 1978 legislators may use campaign funds for expenditures \u2026 reasonably related to performing the duties of office held, including mail, telephone, and travel expenditures to serve constituents, but excluding personal and legislative session living expenses'. An unintended consequence of allowing campaign funds for performance of duties of the office may be that a legislator(s) may be dependent in some measures on funds given to them by third parties who have specific interests they are promoting or supporting. In addition to the perception that legislators may be receiving contributions for political consideration, there is an even …

Subcommittee Report On Gifts, Suellyn Scarneccia, W. Ken Martinez, Matt Brix

Governor Richardson's Task Force on Ethics Reform (2006)

The giving of gifts to show ones appreciation is a valued tradition in New Mexico. However, the giving of gifts to public officials by persons financially interested in their official actions may have a corrupting influence. A clear statutory bright line definition as to when gifts are not acceptable, beyond the current quid pro quo standard, would provide a necessary foundation for effective regulation of lobbying and campaign finance. A clear definition would also make it easier for both public officials and citizens to comply, and thus increase the publics confidence in its government. This report reviews some options for …

Exceptional Circumstances: The Material Benefit Rule In Practice And Theory, Clay B. Tousey Iii

Campbell Law Review

The collapse of Starr's seemingly meritorious claim and the court's interestingly inconsequential mention of Section 86 raise the motivating questions of this article. First, is Section 86 and the "material benefit rule" it embodies ever applied in court, and, if so, can a unifying theme be found between those cases in which courts choose to enforce the post-benefit promise and those in which they do not?

Selling The Name On The Schoolhouse Gate : The First Amendment And The Sale Of Public School Naming Rights, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Giving Intellectual Property, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Articles

The interdisciplinarity of intellectual property and taxation poses many challenges to the disparate existing norms in each respective field of law. This Article identifies and critiques the current tax regime governing the giving of intellectual property as a manifestation of the failure to understand the principles and policies underlying intellectual property and the firm. It proposes an economic, incentives-based system that would encourage firms to extricate part of their repository of residual rights by surrendering their monopolistic ownership of intellectual property for the benefit of charitable organizations and, in turn, the development and growth of society.

Free Shoes For Primary And Secondary Schools: Playing By The Rules Of Title Ix, Patricia A. Cervenka

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Slides: New England Forestry Foundation: Private Forests For The Public Good Since 1944, Frank Reed

Community-Owned Forests: Possibilities, Experiences, and Lessons Learned (June 16-19)

Presenter: Frank Reed, New England Forestry Foundation

9 slides

Another One Bites The Dust: Missouri Puts To Rest Uncertainty About Anatomical Gift Immunity, Ryan Deboef

Missouri Law Review

In 1968, the Uniform Law Association ("ULA") adopted the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act ("UAGA"). 2 In seeking to promote anatomical gifts, 3 the UAGA immunizes medical personnel who procure human tissue, organ, and bone. Legislatures in all fifty states have since enacted some form of the UAGA. 4 Many state courts interpreted their respective UAGA immunity provisions long ago.' But, until recently, Missouri courts had not yet had the opportunity to interpret Missouri's UAGA immunity provision. In Schembre v. Mid-America Transplant Ass'n,6 Missouri's Eastern District Court of Appeals addressed Missouri's UAGA immunity provision for the first time.7 This Note explores …

Gifts Of Family Llc Units In A Post-Hackl Era: Present Interests Or Future Interests?, Thomas S. Flickinger

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Gifts, Gafts And Gefts: The Income Tax Definition And Treatment Of Private And Charitable 'Gifts' And A Principled Policy Justification For The Exclusion Of Gifts From Income, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn

Articles

Gifts have been given special treatment by the income tax laws since the first post-16th Amendment tax statute was adopted in 1913. The determination of how the income tax law should treat gifts raises a number of issues. For example: should gifts be given special treatment? If so, what should qualify as a gift? Should gifts to a private party be taxable to the donee? Should gifts to a private party be deductible by the donor? Should the donee's basis in a gift of property be determined by reference to the basis that the donor had, and should any modifications …

Promises And Paternalism, E. Allan Farnsworth

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

26th Annual Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law, Turney P. Berry, Jerold I. Horn, David Ackerman, Sheldon G. Gilman, Cassie Spencer, Theodore B. Atlass, John T. Bondurant, Eric A. Manterfield, Norvie L. Lay, James W. Turner, Jeffrey M. Yussman, Homer Parrent Iii, David Tachau

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the 26th Annual Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute held by UK/CLE in July 1999.

Gifts, Bargains, And Form, Jane B. Baron

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cadillacs, Gold Watches, And The Tax Reform Act Of 1986: The Continuing Evolution Of The Tax Treatment Of Gifts To Employees, Mark W. Cochran

Akron Tax Journal

The purpose of this article is to explore the historical background underlying the changes in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, to explain the changes, and to assess their meaning and significance?

Testamentary Substitutes: Retained Interests, Custodial Accounts And Contractual Transactions—A New Approach, Sidney Kwestel, Rena C. Seplowitz

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.