Taxation-Federal Estate and Gift Commons^™

Federal Transfer Taxes: The Possibility Of Repeal And The Post Repeal World , Joel C. Dobris

Cleveland State Law Review

I do want to focus you on what I now see as the crucial social policy behind transfer taxes in America. And, today I would say, that the death tax, if amended, can vindicate that crucial policy. Rightly or wrongly, I think we do not focus on the key purpose of death taxation in this country. I believe knowing the "secret" makes it easier to explain why the environment is so pro-repeal and it makes it easier for me to prescribe for the future. For better or worse, I believe the crucial purpose of the tax is to assert the …

The Moral Hazard Of The Estate Tax , Carolyn C. Jones

Cleveland State Law Review

The current debate about wealth transfer taxation has its themes of morality as well. Opponents have labeled the tax as “immoral.” Taxation is about morality. It is both useful and necessary to consider moral arguments in the debate about the estate tax. In an area largely consigned to economists and philosophers, it is beneficial to broaden perspectives. One could expand the range of academic disciplines considered-to history, psychology, and sociology, for example. One should also take into account the narratives of those affected by the issue. This essay can only probe into this question, beginning with Andrew Carnegie and the …

Home From The Islands: Domestic Asset Protection Trust Alternatives Impact Traditional Estate And Gift Tax Planning Considerations, John K. Eason

Faculty Articles

As the US becomes increasingly litigious, US citizens are more frequently sheltering their wealth in offshore asset protection trusts, or OAPTs. This article provides a thorough overview of the topic, discussing a variety of pertinent legal information.

Living Trusts In The Unauthorized Practice Of Law: A Good Thing Gone Bad, Angela M. Vallario

All Faculty Scholarship

An elderly man recently lost his wife and visits the lawyer's office for assistance in the administration of her estate. After the attorney expresses her condolences, she asks if his wife had a will. The client reaches into a brown shopping bag and retrieves a two-and-a-half inch black binder containing several trusts. The elderly gentleman and his deceased wife were told this would eliminate the expensive legal nightmare of probate. Unfortunately, like many others, this couple was victimized by a trust mill.

The Tax Of Physics, The Physics Of Tax, Stephen B. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Sometimes ideas from science illuminate muddled legal thinking. Physics teaches that, for every particle of matter, there exists a corresponding particle of anti-matter. A particle of matter and its corresponding particle of anti-matter are identical except that they have opposite electrical charges. A proton's charge is positive, an anti-proton's negative. When matter and anti-matter meet, they produce the most powerful explosion in nature, totally annihilating each other.

With these laws of physics in mind, consider that a donor can make a gift in one of two ways: either by assuming a debt or by transferring as asset. In an instance …

Current Issues In Life Insurance Planning, Lawrence Brody

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Practical Problems Encountered In Federal Estate And Gift Tax Audits, W. Birch Douglass Iii, Kirkland M. Kelley

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Estate Planning For Retirement Benefits: Selected Case Studies, Natalie B. Choate

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Planning For Qualified Retirement Plan Benefits And Iras, Louis A. Mezzullo

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Making Retirement Benefits Payable To Trusts, Natalie B. Choate

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Tax Lawyers, Ethical Obligations, And The Duty To The System, Watson

Scholarly Works

Perhaps the most elusive area of law is that of legal ethics. While the term itself is easy to define,' the subject all but defies codification because ethics, or morals (the terms are interchangeable), cannot be encapsulated by or in law. This is because law, in general, contains its own standard of validity on which there is usually clear societal consensus. For example, murder, rape, and theft are morally repugnant universally. Hence, punishment for any of these offenses does not impinge upon religious or individual autonomy because there is no ethical freedom to choose whether or not to engage in …

A Taxing Time For The Bishop Estate: What Is The I.R.S. Role In Charity Governance? (Symposium), Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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

Scholarly Articles

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 …

Estate And Gift Tax Effects Of Selling A Remainder: Have D'Ambrosio, Wheeler And Magnin Changed The Rules?, Ronald H. Jensen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article traces the evolving judicial interpretation of the “adequate and full consideration” exclusion found in section 2036. Part III examines the proper application of the “adequate and full consideration” exclusion to simple sales of remainders such as those involved in D'Ambrosio and Wheeler and concludes that the holdings in those cases are indisputably correct. It then analyzes the possible planning opportunities these decisions offer, particularly in light of section 2702. Part IV examines the effect of the D'Ambrosio trilogy on spousal elections. This Part outlines the potential gift and estate tax savings this device affords and then considers how …

Muddling Along With The Federal Wealth Transfer Tax: A Survey Of Practitioners And Law School Professors, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

Recent efforts to repeal the wealth transfer tax system have prompted enormous discussion. In this Article, the author presents the results of his survey of members of the American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Law Section about this issue and other reforms which have been enacted or suggested.

Do They Practice What We Teach?: A Survey Of Practitioners And Estate Planning Professors, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

This article presents the results of a 1998 mail survey sent to members of the American Bar Association Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section and to law professors teaching estate planning. The principal goal of the survey was to compare the opinions of practitioners and law professors concerning the importance of 31 estate planning issues and techniques. The survey also included an open-ended solicitation of issues deemed significant by the participant.

The survey found consistency between practitioner and professor responses with respect to techniques such as Crummey planning. Legal education appears to be effective in dealing with core principles. …

Death By A Thousand Cuts: The Rule Against Perpetuities, Angela M. Vallario

All Faculty Scholarship

This article suggests the policy and social justifications against dead hand control far outweigh transfer tax advantages provided to wealthy settlors and the potential revenue expected to be generated by the abolishment legislation. The abolishment legislation may be readily adopted by other jurisdictions in light of the legislatures' failure to recognize the consequences of unlimited dead hand control.

This article recognizes that the Rule is complicated, and Rule violations present harsh consequences for practitioners and their clients. In fact, violations of the Rule, due to its complexity, have been held as an attorney error, not subject to a malpractice claim. …

Modern Coverture: Old Wine In Old Bottles, William P. Lapiana

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Tax Consequences Of Assigning Life Insurance - Time For Another Look, Douglas A. Kahn, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 furnishes the courts and the Internal Revenue Service an opportunity to close certain loopholes in the federal tax consequences of assigning life insurance. About twenty years ago, we published an article arguing that the tax consequences of assigning life insurance affords taxpayers unwarranted opportunities for tax avoidance. Since then, developments in the case law and Internal Revenue Service rulings have broadened the loopholes. In the update of our article, we show how the new tax law supports our original position.

Valuation Issues In Intra-Family Transfers, Louis A. Mezzullo

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

The Pitfalls And Problems Of The Generation-Skipping Tax, John B. O'Grady

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Of Sovereignty And Subsidy: Conceptualizing The Charity Tax Exemption (Symposium), Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Of Sovereignty And Subsidy: Conceptualizing The Charity Tax Exemption, Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

This piece explores the broad financial relationship between the public and the charitable sectors. Tax exemption operates as a peculiar subsidy - offering the greatest benefits to charities carrying on the most profitable activities and owning the most valuable property. Perhaps, then, the property tax and income tax exemption of charities can be explained by a 'sovereign' view of the charitable sector. Resembling the federal tax treatment of state and local governments, exemption for charities respects the independence of the nonprofit sector, and minimizes the involvement of charities in the political process. Unfortunately, the long history of Anglo American philanthropy …

Tax Advisor-Client Privilege: An Idea Whose Time Should Never Come, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The Uncertainty Of Death And Taxes: Valuing Estate Tax Marital And Charitable Deductions After Hubert, Heather J. Kidwell

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Toward A Practical Estate-Tax Exclusion For Family-Run Businesses: Analysis Of Section 2033a And Proposal For Reform, Eric D. Chason, Robert T. Danforth

Faculty Publications

In a previous work appearing in this Journal, the authors proposed an approach to estate and gift taxation that encourages productive behavior by the recipients of wealth. In this Article, the authors analyze, in the context of their earlier work, the new estate-tax exclusion for closely held businesses (section 2033A) created by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. The authors describe the features of a practical family-run business exclusion and conclude that section 2033A, in its present form, fails as a practical exclusion. The authors catalogue those elements of section 2033A that should be retained and propose reforms of those …

Death And Pass Through Entities, Alan S. Acker, W. Birch Douglass Iii, T. Randolph Harris

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Distributions From Qualified Plans And Ira' S, Oregon Law Institute, Everett R. Moreland, Bruce J. Temkin, Deborah L. Thomas

Oregon Law Institute, 1997

Course Materials from the June 13, 1997 Program in Portland

The Proper Role Of The Estate And Gift Taxation Of Closely Held Businesses, Eric D. Chason, Robert T. Danforth

Faculty Publications

The authors argue that the goals of estate and gift taxation are not served by taxing closely held businesses when the recipient of the business actively participates in its operation. Further, the authors suggest that taxing closely held businesses tends to harm capital production. The authors propose an approach to estate and gift taxation that encourages productive behavior by the recipients of wealth.

What's In A Name: An Argument For A Small Business Limited Liability Entity Statute (With Three Subsets Of Default Rules), Dale A. Oesterle, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

The recent proliferation of small business entity forms is primarily a result of their tax characterization. With the recent adoption of the IRS "check-the-box" regulations and, as a consequence, the elimination of traditional tax distinctions, many of these forms have lost their appeal. This article proposes starting over with one form, the "limited liability entity." Part I discusses the history of small business forms. Part II analyzes the current forms in light of the recent check-the- box legislation. Part III discusses the necessity of and rationale behind a unified entity statute. Finally, Part IV outlines a unified limited liability entity …