You have a big heart and a little bit of money.  You want to help out a cash-strapped family member, and – “because you’re family” – you don’t put down how much you’ll loan or how it’ll be paid back.  You would hate to do it, but, in a worst-case scenario, you suppose a court could help you get it back.  Through its opinion in Roberts v. Smith, however, the Georgia Court of Appeals may have made it harder to get that money or property back from a family member through an implied trust.

Four siblings arranged to purchase a home for the benefit of one of the siblings.  All of the siblings verbally agreed to contribute money toward the purchase and maintenance of the house.  One of the siblings testified that “[n]obody had a set amount to pay,” and another testified that “we

The 7520 rate for August 2017 has increased to 2.4%.

The August 2017 Applicable Federal Interest Rates can be found here.

In a long-awaited move, the IRS announced recently that taxpayers will now have at least two years to file an estate tax return to elect portability of a decedent’s unused estate tax exemption to the decedent’s surviving spouse.

The new rule was articulated by the IRS in Revenue Procedure 2017-34 and became effective as of June 9, 2017.  Under this new two year filing window, which the IRS characterizes as a “simplified method for certain taxpayers to obtain an extension of time  . . . to make a ‘portability’ election”, a decedent’s estate will have until the later of January 2, 2018 or the second anniversary of the decedent’s death to file an estate tax return to elect portability.  In order to take advantage of this simplified method for obtaining an extension of