This article provides an overview of the U.S. estate tax rules that apply to nonresidents who are not U.S.citizens. The long arm of the U.S. federal estate tax extends to individuals who have assets located in the United States even if the individual is neither a resident nor a citizen of the...

These three charts provide a visual overview of the statutory frameworks for the gift, estate and generation-skipping transfers taxes. These charts are designed for students, professionals and experienced scholars alike -- anyone who needs a quick reference sheet will find them helpful....

This article briefly reviews the 10 articles related to estate and gift taxation that were most-frequently downloaded from the Social Science Research Network in 2010. They are: (1) Paul L. Caron, Jennifer M. Kowal and Katherine Pratt, "Pursuing a Tax LLM Degree: Why and When?" (2) Paul L....

George Steinbrenner was a lucky man. The longtime owner of the New York Yankees died on July 13, 2010, during the current one-year hiatus in the federal estate tax. The man whose management style earned him the nickname ‘‘The Boss'' may have pulled off the greatest play in baseball history....

In order to do any “estate planning,” one must first understand the distinction between probate and nonprobate property. Probate property passes under a will. Nonprobate property passes outside a will, transferring automatically to a person (or people) that the owner has designated during...

Completion is the sine qua non of gift taxation. A grantor's retained control over transferred property (intentionally or unintentionally) may cause a gift to be incomplete for gift tax purposes. This is true even if the grantor has no beneficial interest in transferred property. Powers that...

This article provides an overview of the estate tax consequences of jointly-held general powers of appointment. To avoid triggering estate tax inclusion, a general power should be held with either the creator of the power or a person having a 'substantial' and 'adverse' interest in the exercise...

This short review essay evaluates the Practicing Law Institute's Circular 230 Deskbook by Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Mitchell M. Gans and Damien Rios. For attorneys, accountants and others who practice before the IRS, the Circular 230 Deskbook is a masterful analysis and an important guide to the...

Alaska has made two sweeping reforms to its trust laws in an effort to position itself as the most sophisticated quot;offshorequot; trust jurisdiction for wealthy U.S. citizens and non-U.S. persons holding substantial U.S. property or stock. This article describes Alaska's departure from the...

In the last decade, grantor trusts have become a cornerstone of many sophisticated estate plans. Although clients and their advisors employ grantor trusts with great frequency and success, few taxpayers and not all estate planning professionals are fully conversant with the income tax reporting...