The Second Circuit handed down a decision on March 13, 2019, in the case of Harrell v. Commissioner. Mrs. Harrell had received distributions from the New York City Employees’ Retirement System in 2009 and 2010, as the beneficiary of Howard Wilkerson who died in 1994. The benefits were payable to her as an annuity, which…
Category: Interest
Interest Rate Inversion
Maybe it’s a good time to do GRATs, and maybe they really won’t work so well. Financial commentators in Forbes, Barron’s, and other publications, and in online sites like TheStreet.com and Bloomberg.com, have been talking about something called an “inverted yield curve” since last summer. Basically, they all explain that the yield curve is the…
Applicable Federal Rates for April 2019 – What Will May Bring?
On March 18, 2019, the IRS released the AFRs for April. The Section 7520 rate is 3.0%, down from 3.2% in February and March, and even lower than the 3.4% rate in January. The annual short-term, midterm and long-term rates are 2.52%, 2.55% and 2.89%. The Section 382 adjusted long-term rate is 2.19% and the…
Capitalized Interest Not Deductible
A couple got behind on their mortgage. They refinanced in 2010, borrowing an additional $45,000 to pay the past due on their mortgage. The mortgage company issued a 1098 for that year saying it had received less than $10,000 in interest, but the couple claimed that they had paid $48,000 in mortgage interest. The IRS…