One of the more common engagements for our firm is to assist with business sales and acquisitions. This article is the third in a series of articles which will walk through and generally discuss the steps typically associated with the sale of a business. In Part 1, we discussed the breakdown of the business, the…
Read More
In the recent Tax Court opinion, Campbell v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2019-4, the Court held that assets in a self-settled offshore asset protection trust were not includable in assets collectible by the IRS to satisfy the taxpayer’s assessed income tax liabilities. The case involved John Campbell’s request for an Offer in Compromise, offering $12,603 to…
Read More
One of the more common engagements for our firm is to assist with business sales and acquisitions. This article is the second in a series of articles which will walk through and generally discuss the steps typically associated with the sale of a business. In Part 1, we discussed the breakdown of the business, the…
Read More
Original Tax Court Opinion I have previously written about the case of Wendell Falls Development, LLC v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo 2018-45. In that case, the Tax Court denied a charitable conservation easement deduction relating to a 125-acre parcel that was part of a total 1,280-acre development outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. I noted that the…
Read More
Background Surprising to many, qualified retirement accounts received by a spouse in divorce may lose creditor protection, a significant beneficial feature of retirement accounts. In the case of In re Lerbakken, filed on October 16, 2018, the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Eighth Circuit held that qualified accounts received by the non-participant spouse pursuant to…
Read More
Background In a recent case out of the Seventh Circuit, a large corporate taxpayer lost a involving three like-kind transactions under IRC 1031. Applying the substance over form doctrine, the Court upheld the imposedtax liability of approximately $437,000,000 and accuracy related penalties under IRC 6662(a) of approximately $87,000,000. In this case, Exelon Corporation (“Exelon”) sold…
Read More
Last week the Tax Court handed down its opinion in Melasky v. Comm’r, 151 T.C. 9 (Oct. 10, 2018). The important issue in Melasky relates to the application of the proceeds of a levy. Four days prior to the date the levy was made, the taxpayer hand-delivered a check to the IRS and properly designated…
Read More
Introduction In tax planning, it always has been important to determine whether an activity qualifies as a “trade or business.” There are a number of consequences. An important consequence is being able to deduct “ordinary and necessary” business expenses under Sec. 162. Others are the applicability of the 3.8% net investment income tax, hobby loss…
Read More
In the recent Harbor Lofts case, the Tax Court clarified that a long-term lessee of real property is not entitled to take a deduction with respect to a grant of a conservation easement on that same property.With this case, we are reminded again that easements can be completely denied, even when a substantial interest in…
Read More
The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) recently issued proposed regulations on the new deduction for qualified business income (“QBI”) under new Code section 199A. Among other things, the proposed regulations address the hotly debated interpretive issue regarding the term “specified service trade or business” (“SSTB”). SSTB is a key term under section 199A because, if an…
Read More