Once Removed Episode 18: The Reciprocal Trust Doctrine
The May 2025 Section 7520 rate for use with estate planning techniques such as CRTs, CLTs, QPRTs and GRATs is 5.00%, which is the same as the April 2025 Section 7520 rate...more
The April 2025 Section 7520 rate for use with estate planning techniques such as CRTs, CLTs, QPRTs and GRATs is 5.00%, which is 0.40% less than the March 2025 rate. The April applicable federal rate (“AFR”) for use with a...more
February 2025 Interest Rates for GRATs, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split Interest Charitable Trusts - The February applicable federal rate (“AFR”) for use with a sale to a defective grantor...more
The IRS has clearly identified legitimate reasons why "U.S. Persons" would establish or maintain ownership in a foreign trust. However, a foreign trust creates complex IRS reporting requirements for US taxpayers who own a...more
The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), passed into law on January 1, 2021 in an effort to crack down on money laundering and other financial crimes, requires certain entities to report their beneficial owners to the federal...more
El 18 de abril de 2024, FinCEN actualizó las preguntas frecuentes (“FAQs) que abordan los fideicomisos y el CTA (“Corporate Transparency Act”). Los fideicomisos son vehículos que pueden ayudar a preservar patrimonios y la...more
On April 18, 2024, FinCEN updated FAQs that address Trusts and the CTA (Corporate Transparency Act). Trusts are vehicles that can assist in the preservation of wealth and property for future generations, protect assets, or...more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 provided major changes to the Internal Revenue Code, specifically doubling the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption (collectively, the exemption) from...more
Earlier this week the White House released its Fiscal Year 2025 Budget. Of course, the federal government has not yet adopted a budget for the Fiscal Year 2024 even as we approach that year’s halfway mark. But I digress. The...more
Trusts are described in multiple ways, including: living or testamentary, revocable or irrevocable and grantor or non-grantor. These terms are not always mutually exclusive. A trust can be living, revocable and a grantor...more
A trust structure, commonly used for estate planning, can be problematic in certain civil law jurisdictions, such as those in many European countries. Recent acts enacted in Wyoming and New Hampshire allow for the...more
The Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”), a set of new regulations being implemented by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), requires entities newly formed or registered to do business in the United States...more
Earlier this week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a retroactive tax on so-called “INGs” — Incomplete Gift Non-Grantor Trusts. Note that the law, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023, has some limitations in...more
Grantor trusts allow for tax deductions on income generated by trust assets whereas non-grantor trusts do not allow for these deductions. It is crucial for people to carefully decide which type of trust is best for their...more
April Interest Rates for GRATS, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split-Interest Charitable Trusts - The April Section 7520 rate for use with estate planning techniques such as CRTs, CLTs, QPRTs and...more
On March 20, 2023, Senators Warren, Sanders, Van Hollen, and Whitehouse addressed a letter to Treasury Secretary Yellen in which they urged Yellen “to use [her] existing authority to limit the ultra-wealthy’s abuse of trusts...more
According to a report issued by the National Association of Realtors a couple of days ago, last year saw a large outmigration of people from California and New York, while Florida and Texas experienced a comparably large...more
Some folks eagerly await the release of a new album. Others camp outside of big box retailers to get the jump on holiday gifts. There are those who line up at box offices to purchase tickets for a concert that is months away....more
The Key Person- The closely held corporation is often a fragile creature. Too often, its continued success and well-being are overly dependent upon the continued involvement of one individual – namely, the founder and...more
I recently encountered an interesting situation in which someone suggested that a grantor trust be decanted into a non-grantor trust before the end of the taxable year. The reason? To avoid the special interest charge that...more
Most of you know by now that I grew up in the Panama Canal Zone which no longer exists as of 1999. In that respect, the transition left me as a man without a country. My father (of blessed memory) when referring to kids...more
“Déjà vu All Over Again”- The White House last week released the President’s Budget for the Fiscal Year 2023. The Budget is ambitious, but its “investments,” we are told, “are more than paid for with tax reforms focused on...more
Last month, the House Ways & Means Committee (the "Committee") approved draft legislation (the “Legislation”) as part of Congress' ongoing $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation process. The Legislation includes significant tax...more
In this second blog post on the House Ways and Means Tax proposals, we address the proposed changes that will affect the taxation of trusts, estates, and retirement plans. As we discussed, on September 13, 2021, the...more
Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee released, and advanced out of committee, draft tax legislation intended to form a part of the Democratic budget reconciliation bill. At almost 900 pages in length, this draft...more