We have been successful in adding some attorneys here at GPM in our Estate Planning and Individual Wealth Management group. I wanted to introduce them to you. Julia Leary. Through a connection at Texas A&M Law School, we were introduced to Julia Leary. She has been a real find! Julia was involved in a clinic…
Category: Probate
Taxpayer Misapplied Rules Re: Optional Deduction on Estate or Income Tax Returns
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…
Texas Supreme Court – Can’t Sue for Interference with Inheritance Rights in Texas
On June 22, 2018, the Texas Supreme Court finally answered the question of whether Texas courts will recognize a claim that someone can interfere with the “inheritance rights” of another. The Court flatly said, “No.” This had been an issue about which lower Texas courts had been divided. Some of the Courts of Appeals said…
Do-It-Yourself Wills
Do-it-yourself wills present a lot of problems. One problem is highlighted in a recent Texas Supreme Court case, Knopf v. Gray, decided March 23, 2018. In that case, the parties were in a dispute over the ownership of a tract of land. Vada Wallace Allen died, leaving a do-it-yourself will. She specifically referred to 316…
Deadline Extended AGAIN for Basis Reporting
Once again, the Treasury and the IRS have delayed the filing deadline for Form 8971 now required under 26 USC 6035 (along with 26 USC 1014(f)), new provisions enacted under the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015. Those new provisions require “basis consistency” between what is reported on a decedent’s…
Deadline Extended for Basis Reporting
Under the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, signed into law on July 31, 2015, Congress enacted new provisions requiring “basis consistency” between what is reported on a decedent’s federal estate tax return and what the beneficiaries of the estate can use as their cost basis for assets inherited from…
Highway Funding Bill
Income Tax Basis Effective 8-1-2015 On July 30, 2015, I issued a Special Alert regarding “basis consistency provisions” which were buried in the Highway Funding Bill. At that time, the House of Representatives was considering the bill. They passed it and the Senate took it up in short order, passed it, and sent it to…
Special Alert – Basis Consistency Provision Passes House
The US House of Representatives has passed the Highway Funding Bill, H.R. 3038. Buried in the text of the Bill is a “basis consistency provision.” Basically, that means a law that would require that a beneficiary who receives assets from a decedent must use the value the decedent’s executor puts on the federal estate tax…
Simplified Probate Forms
The Texas legislature has passed and sent to the Governor S.B. No 512, which amends the Government Code, and requires the Texas Supreme Court “as the court considers appropriate” to prepare and offer for distribution forms “for use by individuals representing themselves in certain probate matters.” The language goes on to include, in the list…
Transfer on Death Deed
The Texas legislature has passed and sent to the Governor S.B. No. 462, originally introduced by Senator Joan Huffman of Houston, named the “Texas Real Property Transfer on Death Act.” As the name of the statute implies, it provides a method for a person (grantor) to execute and record a deed that has no legal…