Many people sign a will and assume they never need to look at it again. As lawyers, we prepare wills that are flexible and deal with multiple possible (even if unlikely) scenarios, but sometimes an unanticipated change and an outdated will conspire to cause great difficulties for surviving family members. What follows is a perfect example…
When I was practicing in Oregon way back when – it seems like a lifetime ago – I worked with a successful farming operation that started in the 1950’s. When I first got involved, the founder (we’ll call him “Dad”) was pushing 80, and he was divesting himself of his interests in the farms to…
In 2015, Congress in its infinite wisdom changed the rules on how audits of partnerships (and multi-member LLCs) were to be conducted beginning on January 1, 2018. Before the change, a tax matters partner (or member) handled an audit of partnership tax returns, but the tax matters partner couldn’t do a whole lot except for…
One of the pillars of President Trump’s presidential campaign was the repeal of the federal estate tax. The estate tax is viewed by some as penalizing the wealthy for being successful by subjecting their assets to double-taxation; most likely their wealth was subject to ordinary or capital gain tax during life and now it is…