The Treasury Department issued final regulations on  November 26, 2019 (Treasury Decision 9884) confirming that taxpayers will not be subject to “clawback” of the value of their pre-2026 gifts of the temporarily increased gift and estate tax exemption.

Pursuant to the final regulations, taxpayers will be able to use (prior to 2026) the full increased gift and estate tax exclusion that became available beginning in 2018 under the citing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) without concern that the IRS may attempt to include gifts that exceed the post-2025 exclusion amount in the taxpayer’s taxable estate at death.  This concern that lifetime gifts in excess of the exclusion amount at death might be included in the taxable estate of the decedent has come to be known as “clawback.”  The TCJA itself directed the IRS to publish regulations clarifying the clawback question and related

The 7520 rate for September 2019 decreased to 2.2%.

The September 2019 Applicable Federal Interest Rates can be found here.

Hong Kong Senior Associate, Ruben Sinha,  has been named in CityWealth’s 2019 Future Leaders Top 100. This publication is judged by industry leaders and recognises rising talent (under 40 years old) and leading next generation advisers working within the international private wealth industry across law, private banking, trust services and asset management. This is, in part, recognition of Ruben’s experience advising ultra-high net worth clients in complex international and often high profile cases from both London and Hong Kong. His work is increasingly focused on asset protection and trusts in the context of family litigation, in particular, advising offshore trustees within international divorce proceedings. Ruben’s inclusion follows his recognition in Legal Week’s Private Client Global Elite ‘Ones to Watch’ last summer.’

The 7520 rate for July 2019 decreased to 2.6%.

The July 2019 Applicable Federal Interest Rates can be found here.

The IRS announced on March 27, 2019 that in an effort to enhance security and improve transparency, the “responsible party” on applications for an employer identification number (EIN) must now be a natural person.

An EIN is the tax identification number assigned to entities such as trusts, estates, retirement plans, LLCs, partnerships, and corporations.  An entity obtains such a number by completing the IRS Form SS-4 or an online application.  One question in the application process asks the applicant to identify the “responsible party,” which the IRS defines as “the person who ultimately owns or controls the entity or who exercises ultimate effective control over the entity.” In deciding who to list as the responsible party, the IRS encourages applicants to consider whether the party has “a level of control over, or

The 7520 rate for April 2019 has decreased to 3.0%.

The April 2019 Applicable Federal Interest Rates can be found here.

The 7520 rate for January 2019 has decreased to 3.4%.

The January 2019 Applicable Federal Interest Rates can be found here.

Congratulations to Private Client attorneys, Shannon Barks (Kansas City) and Tiffany McKenzie (Atlanta) who have been elected to partnership at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, effective Jan. 1, 2019!

What does a trustee do when an irrevocable trust needs to be modified?  Circumstances or laws may have changed in ways that could not have been anticipated at the time the trust was drafted.  In the past, a trustee who wanted to change some aspect of an irrevocable trust had few options, other than a court order to reform the trust which can be a costly and lengthy process.  Now, many states have alleviated the necessity of court approval to modify trusts by permitting “decanting.”

Decanting is the term generally used to describe the distribution of trust property to another trust pursuant to the trustee’s discretionary authority to make distributions to, or for the benefit of, one or more beneficiaries.  Decanting may be permitted by statute, by the terms of the original trust or by court-created law.  Currently, Massachusetts has

Right now we are all in the peak of tax return filing season.  As part of the tax return process, many tax practitioners file information returns for the entities they represent. Any person, including a corporation, partnership, individual, estate, and trust, who makes a payment (such for as rent, wages, salaries, and annuities) must file an information return with the IRS to report the payment.  But what happens if a false information return is filed with the IRS?

In 1996, Congress enacted 26 U.S.C. § 7434(a), which gives victims of fraudulent filing activities a damage remedy against the perpetrators.  The provision applies whenever “any person willfully files a fraudulent information return with respect to payments purported to be made to any other person.”  It allows the subject of the false information return to recover from the person filing the return the greater of $5,000 or actual