Kemp Klein

NEAL NUSHOLTZ TAX LAW ARTICLES

Neal Nusholtz

Neal Nusholtz has successfully litigated positions for his clients which require the courts to change existing tax law. He has written articles in national and local journals about the legal concepts involved in those cases and also about the combined history of tax and constitutional laws which date back centuries.

Two articles written by Neal about Law and the American Revolution were published in the Journal of the American Revolution, Annual Volume 2017  (Annual Volume Journal of the American Revolution Books). The book presents the journal’s best historical research and writing over a given calendar year. 

A Fiduciary’s Duties and Fees In The Determination of Heirs Process

To what extent can a fiduciary of an estate or trust involve himself, herself in the process in the determination of heirs? The answer depends on context. Beware of the issues and research the issue wherever you are. If a search is necessary to give notice or distribution, do it and follow the rules of due diligence as suggested above.on context. Beware of the issues and research the issue wherever you are. If a search is necessary to give notice or distribution, do it and follow the rules of due diligence as suggested above.

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Helping Your Clients Select A Whole Life Policy

The critical factor in selecting the best deal wasn’t the amount of the annual premium. It was the “vanish.” The vanish is a projected number of years after which the policy has enough funding to sustain itself without further premiums being paid.

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The Private Benefit Doctrine and Tax-Exempt Entities

Charitable organizations are exempt from income tax under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) §501(c)(3) if they are both organized and operated exclusively for one or more of the public purposes specified in that code section. An organization failing to meet either an organizational test in its formation documents or an operational test in actual practice is not exempt.

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Alan A. May & Neal Nusholtz on In Re JLD Living Trust

What does the JLD Living Trust case tell us? It tells us there is a way for a settlor to rest in peace by having a court determine the validity of the estate plan while he or she is still alive. The JLD case opens the door to pre-death litigation of an estate plan in those situations where a settlor wants certainty and to avoid post-mortem contention over the terms of their estate plan.

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Standing to Contest a Subsequent Testamentary Document

Does a trustee have standing to challenge a change to a trust of which he or she is the trustee? Alan May once represented a trustee in a matter where the trustee was named as trustee in an antecedent trust and the subsequent restated trust only made one change. It named a new trustee.

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Soaking Up Surplus Basic Exclusion Amounts

The basic exclusion amount (“BEA”) is the dollar size of a taxable estate above which there is a 40% tax. Gross estates worth less than the BEA need not file an estate tax return. The current BEA is temporarily $12,920,000. If Congress does nothing before 2026, the BEA will drop in January of 2026 to $5 million adjusted for inflation from 2016. Still, Congress could make the BEA into any number, even one larger than the current $12.9 million. As advisors, we need to plan for the uncertain BEA.

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Unexpected Values

This newsletter uses the expected value approach to examine three life insurance policies with changing death benefits and probabilities. The expected value approach

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Valuing Spousal Interests for Injured Spouse Tax Refunds

This article was written for Leimberg Information Services.  Leimberg provides Estate Planning, Employee Benefits and Retirement Planning, Business Entities, Asset Protection Planning, Financial Planning and Charitable Planning Newsletters. They also provide LawThreads®, Actual Text, State Laws, US Code Searcher, and Supersearcher tools.

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Infectious Tax Liabilities

If you acquire property with a federal tax lien attached, it can be levied upon for sale to pay the transferor’s taxes. What if you owned property you did not acquire

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You May Be a Tax Return Preparer

In 2011, Congress increased the penalty for each failure of a preparer to comply with due diligence requirements in preparing a tax return from $100 to $500. This was after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paid billions

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Federal Tax Liens of One Spouse in Divorce

After filing for divorce, spouses often file separate tax returns. Spouses are jointly liable on joint returns, and one spouse might cause an unexpected income tax liability in an income tax audit (subject to the innocent spouse rules).

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Tax Law, Economics, and Constitutional Rights

On October 7, 1996, four Supreme Court justices refused, without explanation, to participate in the case of Hatter v United States, 117 S Ct 39 (1996). In that case, some 80 federal judges had sought income tax refunds for as much as $75,000. Because of the abstentions, the Supreme Court lacked a quorum. The appeals court ruling allowing the refunds was automatically affirmed.

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Swearing About Taxes

In 1754 the Massachusetts Legislature
passed a liquor excise tax bill requiring consumers to account to tax collectors on oath,

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