Regardless of where you work, or what kind of practice you have, the last nine or 10 months have probably been tough on you and your clients. Of course, some firms have fared better than others, so what better time than now to hear what clients...

Let's look at the recent past, the better to see what the future of the estate tax will be in the years 2009, 2010, 2011 and beyond. My predictions about what we can expect are based on the Nov. 14, 2007 Senate Finance Committee (SFC) hearing...

How much do estate and gift taxes contribute to funding the federal government? A March 19, 2008, Congressional Research Service report said that combined revenues from estate and gift taxes were $26 billion in 2007, constituting 1 percent of...

How much do estate and gift taxes contribute to funding the federal government? A March 19, 2008, Congressional Research Service report said that combined revenues from estate and gift taxes were $26 billion in 2007, constituting 1 percent of...

Few things in the tax code are clearer than this: A surviving spouse named as the beneficiary of retirement plan death benefits of a deceased spouse can roll those death benefits into her own individual retirement accounts (IRA). But one...

The Internal Revenue Service has published an article on tax-exempt organizations that everyone practicing in estate and philanthropic planning should keep close at hand for easy reference and for some perspective especially during this time of...

Do you think that split-dollar arrangements (other than premium loans under the split-dollar loan regime) faded away when the Internal Revenue Service tightened the rules on them in the final regulations issued Sept. 17, 2003?1 Think again. New...

Herbert Vogel, a retired postal worker, and his wife, Dorothy Vogel, a former librarian, spent 45 years amassing a collection of more than 4,000 pieces of artwork. On April 11, 2008, they announced their intention to donate 2,500 pieces of their...

Low Internal Revenue Service discount rates make this an ideal time to use grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), as it's easier now to get over the hurdle that makes the GRAT effective. Still, the fact that one has to beat the IRS discount rate...

In a move that generated considerable joy and surprise,1 the Internal Revenue Service announced in Notice 2008-30 that beginning this year, a decedent's qualified retirement account can be directly rolled over into a Roth individual retirement...