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Business Succession Planning

Estate of Aaron U. Jones-Tax-affecting

The Tax Court in Estate of Aaron U. Jones upheld the use of tax-affecting in the valuation of gifts made of S corporation and limited partnership interests.  The business involved timber, and the income method is typically used to value an ongoing timber business.  Tax-affecting is adjusting the value to reflect an after tax value …

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Planning for Intellectual Property

There are three basic types of intellectual property (IP): copyrights, trademarks and patents.   Copyrights do not protect ideas, but do protect the way those ideas are expressed.  Trademarks protect logos, slogans or other ways a business is identified.  Patents protect inventions. IP presents unique challenges for estate and business planning.  It is a difficult …

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Exiting an S Corporation is a Sticky Wicket

I generally don’t recommend structuring a business as an S corporation.  Unlike LLCs and partnerships, the S corporation rules (i) restrict the number and type of owner, (ii) provide no flexibility in allocating income and loss, (iii) do not allow a step up of the assets at death of the shareholder and (iv) unlike other …

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