Crider Trust Case – The Case for the Cautious Fiduciary

On February 8, 2024, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued its opinion[1] regarding an issue of first impression regarding Mississippi’s Principal and Income Act of 2013 (the “Act”).[2] As a worthwhile note, the Court noted that this is an issue of first impression and acknowledged as well as appeared to oblige the parties so as to…
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The 2024 Dirty Dozen – The IRS’s Annual Warning

Every year, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) releases its “Dirty Dozen.” The Dirty Dozen, as written previously about by my colleague, Devin Mills,[1] is a list of twelve prevalent scams the IRS bodes taxpayers to be weary of during tax season, as they “put taxpayers, businesses, and the tax professional community at risk of losing…
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VA Pension Benefits Summary

A line from President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan,” was the mission statement for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) for decades. The VA offers many different benefits to those who served in…
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Estate Planning with Partnership Interests: Income Tax Considerations

Small businesses predominate the United States.[1] Many of those businesses operate through entities taxed as partnerships.[2] Those entities may be general partnerships, limited partnerships, LLC’s, or other state law entity types.[3] Many partnerships are formed as part of family and estate planning. Some benefits of the use of partnerships in estate planning include, but are…
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The Corporate Transparency Act is Here: What You Need to Know

What is the CTA? Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) at the end of 2020 as part of a larger bill referred to as the Anti-Money Laundering Act, which in turn was part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021. It was signed into law by President Biden on January 1, 2021. The…
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The Corporate Transparency Act Receives its First Blow in Court

The late Justice Antonin Scalia once remarked that federal judges should have a rubber stamp that’s says “Stupid But Constitutional.” The Constitution, in other words, does not allow judges to strike down a law merely because it is burdensome, foolish, or offensive. Yet the inverse is also true – the wisdom of a policy is…
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Medicare Advantage Versus Traditional Medicare

Individuals approaching age 65 have some very important decisions to make, however, they may not be aware of the potential long-term consequences of these decisions. One of the most important decisions is which Medicare programs to enroll in. Among the choices are Medicare Advantage plans (also known as Medicare Part C, and previously referred to…
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Insurance Arrangement Found to be Split Dollar Insurance Arrangement

Split dollar life insurance arrangements can take on a number of forms, and the exact structure of the arrangement determines the tax consequences, which can become complicated quickly. In a recent case out of the District Court of Ohio, the court held that an insurance arrangement between a single member C corporation, Peter E. McGowan…
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ETA 2026 – Switching from Inclusion to Exclusion Planning for the Estate Tax

Currently (and since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017), we, like many other practitioners, have seen an incredible uptick in inclusion planning[1] instead of the traditional exclusion planning (getting assets out of one’s taxable estate). A primary driving force for this major shift was the essential doubling of the estate tax exemption (from…
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Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts – Have your cake and eat it, too

Shortly before his passing, Benjamin Franklin uttered one of his more infamous quotes, “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” With the certainty of death implicitly comes another: everyone will transfer his or her wealth, whether in life or after death. How a person transfers wealth will affect how the other certainty,…
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[**Practice Alert: Corporate Transparency Act is Here: What You Need to Know**](https://esapllc.com/practice-alert-cta-mar-2024/)
[**Practice Alert: Corporate Transparency Act is Here: What You Need to Know**](https://esapllc.com/practice-alert-cta-mar-2024/)