A tax system should be fair. According to conventional wisdom, this fairness mandate means that similarly situated taxpayers should pay similar taxes. Notably absent from most discussions about tax fairness or equity is any consideration of race. This makes sense, if one focuses on the tax...

The purpose of this article is to propose a simpler verifiable gift tax, to reassert basic principles of transfer taxes, to encourage simple, outright gifts, and to eliminate some of the major abuses in the current gift tax regime. To accomplish these goals, the proposed tax would simplify gift...

In Estate of Black, because the Tax Court held the Blacks' transfers fell within the bona fide sales exception of section 2036, they were successful at avoiding the application of the provision. Thus, they were able to obtain valuation discounts for their transfers of property (mostly marketable...

Both Turner and Glass provide useful commentary on the requirements a taxpayer must satisfy to qualify for a conservation easement charitable deduction or the estate tax conservation easement exclusion. Because of the increased popularity of conservation easements, as well as the heightened IRS...

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

In Morgens, the court ruled in favor of the government that section 2035(b) applied to the gift taxes paid by the qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trust beneficiaries to gross up the widow’s estate by that amount. Because the surviving (or donee) spouse must be taxed on the...

It is the purpose of this comment to explore a hypothetical situation, to take the facts of the Quinlan case as revealed in the New Jersey Superior Court and the New Jersey Supreme Court opinions and interpret them under applicable Ohio law

Professor Zelenak and I agree on one half of my thesis: that the QTIP provisions are illogical and do not serve their purported policy goal. They were based on the premise that a married couple acts as a unit about "their" property and, quite obviously, they were motivated by the fear that in...

The article reviews Estate of Clack v. Commissioner. First, the article explains how that case was wrongly decided both in terms of the statute and in the fact that it is inconsistent with most tax elections and determination dates. Second, the article shows how this case adds insult to injury...