For all of the people who were in my “Foreign Investment in U.S. Real Estate” class yesterday in San Francisco (I taught a 1-day course sponsored by the California Society of CPAs Education Foundation), here is one of the things I promised to deliver. Tax Court Opinion The Estate of Fung attached (warning: PDF) are [...]

The Tigerhawk blog has a tax reform proposal that has a high Sanity Quotient but unfortunately a zero probability of enactment. I’m one of the tax lawyers in the tax/estate planning industry who would be wiped out if Tigerhawk’s estate tax proposal (item 1 on the list) ever comes about. I still think his idea [...]

The House of Representatives passed a bill a few weeks ago (H.R. 8 is the bill number) which would permanently repeal the estate tax. It ain’t gonna happen, folks, as long as Democrats roam the earth. Proof of that came yesterday. Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA), Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, signalled his willingness [...]

Estate tax repeal is a political football. Yes, there’s money involved. Tax money. But generally the quantity of revenue raised by the estate tax is trivial in the total Federal budget. So if there’s a disagreement about estate tax, you can be sure it’s not because we’re worried about the U.S. going broke for lack [...]

What’s the value of a family business? Unless you sell, it’s just a matter of opinion. And where there’s an opinion, there’s a tax-saving scheme. Here’s a recent case involving a family business, a buy-sell agreement, and a pinch of greed leavened with a sprinkle of wishful thinking.