News & Alerts
February 01, 2010
GCF's Estate Planning & Tax Group is Proud to Sponsor Riverside Theatre's Diamonds and Denim Event
Gould Cooksey Fennell’s Estate Planning & Tax Group is proud to be the Presenting Sponsor of Riverside Theatre’s Diamonds & Denim in Old Las Vegas.
January 19, 2010
Helping Haiti
Members of the Firm have banded together to collect items to help the earthquake victims in Haiti. Attorneys and Staff are donating much needed food, supplies and other necessities and delivering them to Gifford Youth Activity Center.
January 19, 2010
2010 Federal Estate Tax Repeal and Other Tax Law Changes
To the great surprise of nearly everyone, Congress was unable to accomplish expected revisions to the Federal Estate Tax in 2009. Consequently, the previously scheduled one-year repeal for 2010 that was not expected to survive did, in fact, occur as of January 1, 2010. While this repeal is, in many ways, welcome news, its unexpected arrival and uncertain future create an extremely difficult tax planning environment. The Wall Street Journal published an article on January 2, 2010, which summarizes how the repeal developed and discusses some of the implications of its ambiguous future. We have included a copy of that article with this correspondence.
Many in Congress have indicated an intent to promptly reverse this repeal and to apply such reversal retroactively. Therefore, although temporary repeal is the current law of the land, the true circumstance that will apply for 2010 remains very uncertain. Likewise, for the years beyond 2010, we have tremendous uncertainty as well. The laws in place currently call for the estate tax to return with a vengeance on January 1, 2011, back to an exemption level of only $1,000,000 (down from the 2009 level of $3,500,000). There is considerable hope and belief that Congress will act to increase those exemption levels considerably, but again, those details cannot be known and expectations vary substantially.
The generation-skipping tax laws and the generation-skipping tax exemption levels are also similarly affected by the current, temporary repeal and by the uncertain future of these laws, both within 2010 and beyond.
Another very significant change under the current 2010 law is the elimination of the basis “step-up” on inherited assets for capital gain and loss purposes. Under the law that applied up until January 1, 2010, the income tax basis of an asset was automatically changed to its current value as of its owner’s death. This year, however, that automatic change would not occur, and the deceased owner’s income tax basis in assets will “carry over” to the heirs who inherit those assets. However, under some fairly complicated new rules, the decedent’s executor is given the ability to increase the basis of various assets, subject to certain total amount limitations.
These profound changes in the tax laws, and the tremendous uncertainty surrounding them for this year and beyond, create two very significant risks for existing estate plans. One is the risk
that language in existing documents tied to tax laws or exemption levels which have now changed may trigger unintended, adverse consequences as to the division and/or distribution of assets. The other is that existing documents could fail to take advantage of significant new tax planning opportunities created by these changes in the laws.
To help illustrate some of the impacts of these legislative changes, we have enclosed examples of a few common estate planning structures that may require significant revision. However, this is not a comprehensive summary and you should know that these tax law changes would have a significant impact on most estate plans. Please note, however, that we cannot assume responsibility for reviewing and updating your estate plan unless you instruct us to do so.
As you can imagine, we expect to be extremely busy with these efforts on behalf of our clients. In an effort to respond to every client’s request in a timely manner, we have structured a review process within our Estate Planning and Tax Group. Our Group has grown to six attorneys, five of whom have a Master of Laws in either Taxation or Estate Planning. When a client requests our review and assistance with these matters, our attorneys will work in a coordinated manner to first review the current plan structure and identify areas that likely need revision or alternative contingency drafting in light of the current and reasonably foreseeable legislative changes. After that internal review, we will meet with the client to discuss these details and recommendations, explore other issues and opportunities and confirm decisions so that all goals are addressed and brought current. In most cases, we will also ask the client to provide updated financial summary information to us in advance of the meeting, which may also include tax cost basis estimates for significant assets which have appreciated in value.
Your satisfaction and the optimization of your estate plan are both extremely important to us and it is our goal to ensure that we meet your needs appropriately at this important time. We will make every effort to respond to each client’s request in a timely manner and hope you will have some patience with us, as may be necessary given the volume of effort that will be needed over a relatively short time period. Of course, we will try to accommodate, most quickly, those clients with serious health concerns or other emergencies.
If you would like us to begin the process of reviewing your current estate plan, please contact our offices at your earliest convenience. We will thereafter schedule a meeting with you to discuss the impacts on your current estate plan, as well as some of the new opportunities that may now present themselves. We are pleased to be of service to you and we appreciate your confidence in us.
December 02, 2009
"Poor economy blamed for increase in age-discrimination inquiries"
GCF’s Jason Odom was interviewed for an article that was in published in the Press Journal on Sunday, November 22, 2009, titled “Poor Economy blamed for increase in age-discrimination inquiries”.
December 02, 2009
GCF Welcomes Anthony Guettler to the Firm
Gould Cooksey Fennell is pleased to announce the addition of Attorney Anthony P. Guettler. Mr. Guettler joins GCF’s Estate Planning and Tax Group, which now consists of six attorneys with a concentrated focus on estate planning, probate and trust administration, and related areas of taxation.