Farmers Exemption from Estate Taxes

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 3524) recently introduced a bill that will exempt family farms from federal estate taxes if the farms will stay with their respective families.  The bill is called Family Farm Preservation Conservation Estate Tax Act.  It was assigned to the Committee of House Ways and Means after being introduced by (D-Colo) Rep. John Salazar and (D-Napa) Rep. Mike Thompson.

According to Laurel Brown, the spokeswoman of Thompson, “The bill would defer estate taxes on conserved and agricultural land indefinitely, so long as it still remains in the family - this ensures that nobody would have to sell the land just to pay for the estate taxes.  Then Murray said that “So many family farms have been struggling until now.  This bill will encourage farms to remain in the family’s possession.  There aren’t too many left.”

The law governing agricultural estate taxes is expiring next year.  It’s expected to be replaced by another law in 2011 that would tax families blending the levels of 2001 and 2002.  This level is hard for a lot of family farms, which are typically asset rich yet cash poor.

The new estate legislation was endorsed by 28 farm organizations including Western United Dairymen, Western Growers, California Association Winegrape Growers, and California Farm Bureau Federation.

Tags: agriculture, bill, estate, estate taxes, farms, federal, John Salazar, Laurel Brown, law, legislation, Mike Thompson, U.S. House of Representatives
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Future of Estate Taxes

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Legislative gurus, estate attorneys, and financial planners are bustling about the estate tax’s future.  A lot of people already know that under the 2001 EGTRRA (Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act), federal estate tax changed almost annually for the past few years.  In fact, it’s most likely to phase out entirely next year but will come back in 2011 if things don’t change in Washington. 

Currently, estate tax exclusion rests at $3.5 million (for married couples, $7 million) and top tax rate is at 45%.  When federal estate tax goes back in 2011, the exclusion would drop back - $1 million for individuals and $2 million for married couples, with top tax rate rising to 55%.

Today, most experts would agree that estate taxes are here to stay considering that budgetary challenges occupy congress and the current administration.  Also, economic crisis is still underway.  Legislation has been introduced to keep exclusion at current levels and marry this exclusion to lifetime gift tax exemption. 

At this point, it’s still too early to tell the ultimate fate of the current proposal and all others that are bound to be proposed during the coming months.  In the meantime, those in the know solidly believe that it’s important to revisit your current estate plan as well as undertake proactive tax planning.

Tags: attorneys, EGTRRA, estate attorneys, estate plan, estate tax, federal, financial planners, legislation, legislative gurus, proposal, tax planning, Washington
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Limiting Conditional Sentences

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

On Monday, a new legislation will be introduced in Vancouver House of Commons. This legislation announced on Saturday by Attorney General Rob Nicholson (Minister of Justice) would end conditional sentences given to serious crimes.

According to the bill, offenders committing serious crimes should receive an imprisonment term instead of a conditional sentence, which is usually less than two years of community service or house arrest. Nicholson said that previous attempts to introduce alike legislations did not push through in Parliament.

He said the government will submit the proposal on Monday. As a result, “this will restrict the people’s ability to obtain conditional sentencing. It’s also consistent with the efforts to increase the confidence of the public in criminal justice system. Likewise, it would ensure that criminals committing serious crimes will receive sentences commensurate to their actions,” he emphasized.

This proposed legislation is expected to pick up where the “Act to Amend Criminal Code” has left off. Previously, that bill aspired to remove conditional sentencing for offences with 10 years or more maximum sentence.

The 2006 legislation has been altered during the parliamentary process and a lot of serious offences that should be ineligible for conditional sentences proposed by the bill were removed. “So now, the new proposed legislation will hopefully make it clear to the courts which offences should not be eligible for conditional sentences,” Nicholson concluded.

Tags: attorney, conditional sentence, crime, Criminal, House of Commons, imprisonment term, legislation, Rob Nicholson, Vancouver
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Limitations for Bringing Old Court Accusations

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Two states created legislation windows opening up new time periods for childhood sexual abuse victims to seek civil court redress. California allowed these victims to file a case against their employer or abuser within one year regardless when the abuse occurred. Then, Delaware followed in 2007, this time giving people two years of leeway in bringing their accusations to civil court.

Moreover, New York state legislators are debating for a one-year statute this year. Other states are also mulling over similar measures.

These statutes of limitations for civil or criminal actions help avoid circumstances where testimonies rely on faded memories, documents have disappeared, or the evidence is incomplete. However, when high-profile abuse scandals (allegedly perpetrated by Catholic priests) occurred decades ago, a few states saw a particular need for “window laws” that could open the courts again temporarily and allow remedies of past grievances through civil actions only (not criminal prosecutions).

Supporters of these laws say that people who didn’t know or disclose that they’ve been harmed will benefit the most. But others say that such laws may inevitably raise questions of fairness and constitutionality.

Some defense attorneys say that the only reason these cases are brought up is to wrench money from the church, since many of the named perpetrators are already retired or dead, and it’s almost impossible to defend these cases.

Tags: California, child abuse, Criminal, defense attorneys, Delaware, legislation, statutes of limitations
Posted in Criminal, Criminal News, Sexual Harassment | No Comments »