Trusts and Estates
Ca. Trs. & Estates Quarterly 2014, Volume 20, Issue 4
Content
- California Conservatorship Jurisdiction Act: New Rules For Resolving Interstate Jurisdiction
- Chairs of Section Subcommittees
- Editorial Staff
- From the Chair
- From the Editor-in-chief
- Inside this Issue:
- Litigation Alert
- Sunrise, Sunset: What To Do About a Trustee With Diminishing Capacity
- The State of Title Insurance Five Years After Kwok
- Tax Alert
TAX ALERT
By James M. Allen, Esq. *
This article will provide a summary of selected developments in federal taxation of particular interest to trusts and estates attorneys, occurring since the last Quarterly.
I. FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY H.R. 5771
On December 19, 2014, the President signed the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 (H.R. 5771). The bill extends individual, business, and energy tax incentives through 2014 and makes technical corrections to existing tax laws. Several changes were made to chapters 11 and 13 of the Internal Revenue Code1 through deletion of deadwood provisions.2 Corresponding amendments were made to other estate and generation-skipping transfer tax provisions. Section 2031(c) was amended to reflect the current qualified conservation easement exclusion limitation of $500,000. Section 2801 was also amended to reflect that the highest rate of tax on transfers from expatriates is the rate of tax found in section 2001(c) as in effect on the date of receipt. The IRA distribution rules were extended through the end of 2014 to allow an exclusion from gross income of so much of the aggregate of "qualified charitable distributions" not exceeding $100,000.