Adam Wiensch, one of the attorneys representing the taxpayer in the Woelbing case, reported that the IRS has settled. In that case, Mr. and Mrs. Woelbing had created an insurance trust which held policies with a cash value of $1.6 million. The Woelbings sold $59 million of stock in Carma Laboratories (Carmex lip balm, etc.)…
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…
Radical LLC and Partnership Changes
On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. That statute makes significant changes governing federal tax audits of entities that are treated as partnerships for US federal income tax law. In other words, the statute affects all LLCs and partnerships. Some LLCs are disregarded entities, not taxed as…
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…
Follow-Up: Special Alert – FLPs in Danger
Recently, I sent out an alert that the IRS was on the verge of issuing regulations that would have a significant and drastic impact on family limited partnerships. What is at stake is taxes – gift taxes, estate taxes and generation-skipping taxes. All of those sorts of taxes – gift taxes, estate taxes and generation-skipping…
Special Alert – FLPs in Danger
At the American Bar Association Tax Section meeting in May, Cathy Hughes of Treasury/IRS announced that Treasury and the IRS are on the verge of issuing regulations under Section 2704(b) that will restrict substantially the ability of holders of family limited partnership interests to get the discounts in valuation those interests have so long held…
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…