Last month, the UK government announced sweeping changes to the taxation of “resident non doms,” a classification of individuals who receive favorable tax treatment from the UK government.

The UK tax obligations of an individual depend in large part on the individual’s “domicile” under generally applicable English common law principles. (Unlike the US tax system, the citizenship of an individual is irrelevant under the UK tax system.) The UK income tax and capital gains tax systems (which operate as two separate regimes of tax) take into account the “residence” status of an individual, as well. The residence rules were massively overhauled with effect from 6th April 2013. Note that a UK tax year runs from April 6 to April 5 of the following years.

Because of quirks in the English

We’ve looked at a lot of cases where courts have permitted trust reformation or modification.  In many of these cases, trusts had been modified to avoid unintended or adverse tax consequences, to fix a scrivener’s error, or to tweak some administrative provision.  A Florida appellate court’s ruling in Megiel-Rollo v. Megiel causes us to add another potential circumstance to that list: adding remainder beneficiaries.  Adding beneficiaries gets to the core of a trust’s dispositive provisions, so let’s turn briefly to the unique circumstances underlying this decision.

The grantor created a revocable trust naming herself as trustee and beneficiary during her life.  Upon her death, the grantor’s assets were to be “divided between the Beneficiaries as tenants in common in proportion to their respective interests as

The 7520 rate for September has remained at 2.2%.

The September 2015 Applicable Federal Interest Rates can be found here.

As part of the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, signed into law by President Obama on July 31, 2015, Sections 1014(f) and 6035 were enacted.

Section 1014(f) provides rules requiring that the basis of certain property acquired from a decedent may not exceed the basis of that property as finally determined for federal estate tax purposes, or, if not finally determined, as reported on a statement made under section 6035.

Section 6035 imposes new reporting requirements  for the executor of an estate of a decedent where a federal estate tax return is required to be filed.  The executor must furnish, to both the IRS and to each person who holds a legal or beneficial interest in the property listed on the estate tax return,  a statement “identifying

Congratulations to Kathy Sherby for being named “Lawyer of the Year”  2016 by Best Lawyers®, the oldest lawyer-rating publication in the U.S!

Best Lawyers names a single lawyer in each specialty in each community as “Lawyer of the Year.” Kathy was named in the Trusts & Estates specialty group. Those honored have received particularly outstanding ratings in the surveys by earning a high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism and integrity.

In the past, when an estate of a deceased taxpayer filed a Form 706, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return, the Internal Revenue Service would automatically issue an estate tax closing letter, signifying that the Return had been accepted by the IRS. At that time, the estate could be assured that, unless the estate took an action that re-opened the estate tax return to review, no additional estate tax would be imposed by the IRS.

Recently, a change was made on the IRS website that indicates this procedure has been changed. Per www.irs.gov:

When can I expect the Estate Tax Closing Letter?

For all estate tax returns filed on or after June 1, 2015,

Congratulations are in order for the following attorneys listed as Best Lawyers in America 2016 for Trusts & Estates and Tax Law:

William Linkous, Jr.

Frank S. McGaughey, III

Renee M. Gabbard

Shannon K. Barks

B. John Readey, III

Lawrence Brody

Stephen B. Daiker

John D. Schaperkotter

Michael N. Newmark

Kathleen R. Sherby*

The Best Lawyers in America©, the oldest lawyer-rating publication in the U.S., has selected 168 Bryan Cave lawyers for inclusion in the 2016 edition.

Best Lawyers’ lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. For the 2016 edition, 6.7 million votes were analyzed.  Click here to view all Bryan Cave lawyers listed in the 2016 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, and the practice area or areas for which each is recognized.

Many trustors want to give their trustees wide berth to administer the trust.  In a lot of cases that makes sense because the trustee does not need someone second guessing every discretionary act taken during the life of a trust.  One way a trustor may try to give a trustee room in administering the trust is by including an exculpatory clause in the trust that relieves the trustee from liability for actions that might otherwise be considered a breach of duty.  Of course, trustees appreciate these kind of clauses.  Some jurisdictions defer to these clauses; some do not.  In Rafert v. Meyer, the Supreme Court of Nebraska invalidated a provision in a trust that provided that the trustee had no duty to pay the insurance premiums on 3 insurance policies that constituted the corpus of

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance recently issued a Technical Memorandum explaining the 2015 legislative amendments to the major New York State estate tax reform provisions enacted in 2014 and reported on this blog last year. The amendments are all effective retroactive to April 1, 2015.

The amendments made clear that the following tax tables are permanent.

Basic Estate Tax Exclusion Amount increases are to be phased in as follows for New York residents or non-residents owning real property located in New York State during the period listed:

• April 1, 2014 – March 31. 2015: $2,062,500;

• April 1, 2015 – March 31, 2016: $3,125,000;

• April 1. 2016 – March 31, 2017: $4,187,500;

• April 1, 2017