In this article, Gerzog discusses Estate of Olivo, in which the Tax Court determined the deductibility under section 2053 of a claim against the decedent’s estate for eldercare services provided by a family member

Many things can change between the drafting of a will and the death of a testator. One increasingly common event is that testators require specialist aged care and their only substantial asset – the family home – is sold to fund that care. These arrangements can have an unexpected impact on...

“Social enterprise” is on the rise. Popularly defined, social enterprise means using traditional business methods to accomplish charitable or socially beneficial objectives. Social enterprise is quasi-charitable. It is a hybrid. It is neither entirely profit driven nor entirely...

Even relevant, highly reliable evidence may not be the proper subject of either discovery or proof, because it is protected by a privilege. Some privileges have been recognized by the federal courts as being constitutionally mandated. Some, such as the tax practitioner privilege of I.R.C. §...

The focus of this article is the federal estate and gift tax treatment of copyright termination rights. The right of a creative individual to terminate prior copyright transfers serves to protect against economic exploitation. Once a copyright’s value has been established in the marketplace,...

More than fifty years ago, Congress enacted a prohibition against political campaign intervention for all charities, including churches and other houses of worship, as a condition for receiving tax deductible contributions. Yet the IRS has never taken a house of worship to court for alleged...

In some instances when the taxpayer makes a charitable donation, the loss of revenue to the government, and the corresponding gain to the taxpayer, far exceeds the benefit to the charity. Some of these losses may be generated by government sanctioned complex transactions and even government...

Treasury recently announced proposed regulations under section 2032 explaining valuation rules for assets when the decedent elects to apply the alternate valuation date. The regulations first provide background information about the statute, including legislative history and case law...

The conflict regarding enduring donor control over property gifted for charitable uses implicates issues of current relevance to donors and nonprofit charitable organizations, and to those who represent them. Not surprisingly, these issues, and the possible ways of both addressing and accounting...

Prior to 2001, downstream divisions of trusts were prohibited for Generation-skipping Transfer Tax (GST) purposes. A Qualified Severance of a trust is now allowed. If a trust is properly severed, unnecessary payment of GST tax can be avoided. Final and proposed regulations were issued in August,...