Smaldino: Recent Tax Court Case Has Important Lessons On How To Do Estate Planning Right

A recent Tax Court Case, Smaldino V. Commissioner Of Internal Revenue, T.C. Memo. 2021-127, November 10, 2021 has lots of important lessons on how to do an estate plan properly. These lessons are particularly important for those that did planning in a rush in 2020 and 2021 fearing dramatic changes in the tax laws. Even if those harsh changes aren’t enacted (few of them were included in the bill just passed by the House), if you are doing planning, you should heed the lessons provided in Smaldino. If you completed planning in 2020 or 2021 already, review these lessons and be certain you have all your tax ducks in a row. If you missed doing things properly, it is certainly worth trying to clean up planning after the fact rather than waiting for an IRS auditor to find issues instead. While the critical mistake in the Smaldino case can’t be fixed after the fact, similar planning oversights might benefit from some after the fact cleanup efforts. This webinar will review the Smaldino case, explain what the taxpayers in that case did wrong, and how you can do planning better. We’ll also discuss what you might do for some of their errors to patch them up after the fact when that is feasible. This will make the discussion of the case a great case study to illustrate the good, the bad and the ugly of the estate planning process.

Speakers: Martin Shenkman, Esq., Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Esq., Louis S. Harrison, Esq. and Thomas A. Tietz, Esq.

Sponsors: Peak Trust Company and Interactive Legal

*There are no professional advancement credits (CPE, CLE, etc.) offered for viewing this webinar.
*This may constitute attorney advertising.