Legislation

This Podcast is about the GST.  The Tax Court reasserted its previously stated position on the treatment of the GST grandfathering provision for trusts in existence on September 25, 1985 when a party holds a general power of appointment under that trust.  It held that the IRS final regulations that treat such a power as removing the trust transfers from the protection of the grandfathering provisions are valid, despite cases decided by the Eighth and Ninth Circuit where it was held the plain language of the grandfathering provisions meant that such powers were to be ignored for this purpose. The Tax Court and the Second Circuit had previously held such a position to be a valid interpretation of the law.  Now it appears the Sixth Circuit, which has not yet been heard on this matter, will gets its say in the Gerson Estate case (127 TC No. 11). The materials can be downloaded from http://edzollars.com/2006-10-28_Plain_Language.pdf .  This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services,

This PodCast examines a provision buried in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that involves "employer" owned life insurnace.  The provision in question renders the death benefit taxable to the extent it is greater than the premiums paid unless the policy both falls into certain excepted categories and the policy owner takes specific steps before the policy is issued to assure that the insured both gets proper notice and gives a proper consent.The materials are found at http://edzollars.com/2006-08-12_Life_Insurance.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This Podcast covers TIPRA , the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2005.  We finally have a 2005 extender bill, albiet missing a few extenders and with a few surprises (some good, some not so great).  The President signed the bill into law this week, so it's time to look at the details that were in the bill.The materials for this podcast can be found at http://edzollars.com/2006-05-20_TIPRA.pdf. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This PodCast is a Response to Dr. Bill Frist's Request to his Colleagues to "KILL THE DEATH TAX FOREVER".  Frist stated that, "Because of Katrina, we could not act on repealing the death tax last fall".  But he then added, "NOW IS THE TIME!  HERE IS OUR MOMENT!"The first week in May, the estate tax repeal adventure will continue.  In this OPEN LETTER, we ask Dr. Frisk what's changed that made the first week in May so different than the week after Katrina.We'd like to live in a world with no estate tax - but the world we live in  -  right now  -  as we discuss in the PodCast - has many more pressing needs!  It's a question of priorities. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This Podcast covers Investor-Initiated Life Insurance, a/k/a Stranger-Owned Life Insurance and the recent Opinion of the General Counsel of the New York State Insurance Department.For reprints of several articles on this topic, drop Steve Leimberg a note: steve@leimbergservices.com This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This Podcast considers issues and methods of tax research. Ed Zollars deals with research issues that arise in a tax practice. The materials are found at this link. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

Bernard A. Krooks, LISI's ElderCare Law Newsletter Editor and founding member of Littman Krooks, LLP with offices in New York City and White Plains, N.Y., discusses the significant changes to Medicaid rules in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) that was signed into law on Wednesday, February 8th, 2006. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This Podcast examines the updated uniform definition of a child and other changes to the dependency exemption under Code Section 152 that Congress passed last year, as well as a technical correction Congress just passed that removes what had been a potentially significant change in the treatment of the exemption for divorced parents. You can download the materials from here. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This file contains a correction/clarification to our KETRA update. As is pointed out in this program, Section 303 of the Act does limit these higher rates to provision of Katrina relief. As well, there is a short period where the rate is lower than the rate noted--the new business rate took effect on September 1, but the 70% rule became effective August 25, 2005 Thanks to Michael Wing, CPA on Yahoo Groups' Taxprofessionals group for pointing out these issues. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This quick update summarizes the items contained in the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 (KETRA), concentrating on those items that have impact across the country, as well as summarizing provisions that are targeted directly at the Katrina disaster area. An outline can be downloaded via this link. If you are reading this in iTunes, go to the main website (noted below) to see that link and get the outline. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

Given the disaster that has taken place on the Gulf Coast with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, I've put together a quick and dirty summary of some of the tax issues involved in casualty losses and and federally declared disaster areas that may be of use for those of us who have clients that are located in the affected areas. Note that since this was put together rather quickly, you should confirm all of these details. I also added brief consideration of the issues to be considered with off-site backups due to the risk of a common disaster hitting both the original files and the backup - a situation that, unfortunately, has likely happened to some businesses in New Orleans. A list of the federally declared disaster areas can be found at the FEMA website, so that you can determine the counties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that are subject to these rules. In related matters, the AICPA has posted a set of resources for CPAs related to disaster recovery, as well as a link to the document D

This podcast deals with the solar energy provisions of the Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2005 and the related credits available under Arizona income tax law. The Podcast Materials for this podcast are available for download at http://ezollars.libsyn.com. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This podcast pertains to the Energy Bill.  Download the materials for this presentation from the http://ezollars.libsyn.com website, or simply go to http://www.edzollarstaxupdate.com. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

A general update on tax developments including a summary on two tax bills, two revenue rulings that were published, and a discussion of the IRS announcement of National Research Project exams for S corporations for 2003 and 2004. The materials should be downloaded from the ezollars.libsyn.com website to follow along with on the FICA presentation.This Podcast sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. (LISI) at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our "products" site at http://www.leimberg.com This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

Updated discussion of self-employment matters. The IRS poster referenced is at: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p3204.pdf This Podcast sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. (LISI) at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

The status of self-employment tax and limited liability companies. This a portion of a presented made at the Phoenix Tax Workshop. The materials for the full presentation, which also covers S are available. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com