Planning Notes

A grantor trust is a trust in which the grantor, sometimes called a settlor or trustor, retains an interest. One particular type of grantor trust, called an intentionally defective grantor trust (IDGT), leverages disparities in the federal income and estate taxes to provide opportunities for tax, Medicaid, and asset protection planning.

Although many new business owners who will actively participate in their businesses choose to organize limited liability companies (LLCs) as opposed to incorporating S-Corporations because of, among other things, greater flexibility and the lack of state-required reporting formalities, there is at least one potentially compelling reason to incorporate an S-Corporation, or at least elect taxation as an S-Corporation under Subchapter S of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC): potentially lower employment taxes.

In the United States, it is possible to protect intellectual property associated with computer software via patent, copyright, and/or contract. While patent protection of computer software is not automatic, it requires a person to apply for and receive a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), copyright protection automatically inures to computer software.

Tax basis in the amount upon which taxable gain or loss, if any, will be calculated on the occurrence of various events, including but not limited to the disposition of an asset or sale of an interest in an entity.

A trademark is used to denote the origin or source of a particular good and a service mark is used to denote the origin or source of a particular service. In contrast, a trade name is used to denote the company or entity that is offereing the good or service.

“Long-term care” describes the group of services that help people with who cannot care for themselves for long periods of time.

Late last night, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill, passed by the U.S. Senate on December 31, 2012, that will become the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 ("ATRA"). President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law today.

The federal estate tax only applies to those estates whose value is in excess of a specific amount, often called the federal estate tax exemption. If the estate's value is less than the federal exemption amount, it is not subject to the federal estate tax. However, if the estate's value is above the federal exemption amount, any amount above the exemption is taxed at one or a series of rates.

Brief, non-comprehensive illustrated description of some potential economic effects associated with policies to ease the so-called "fiscal cliff".