This blog is intended to highlight certain aspects of the South Carolina Uniform Gift to Minors Act (the "SCUGMA"), which is found in Article 5 of Chapter 5 of Title 63 (the Children's Code) of the South Carolina Code of Laws.
In general, the SCUGMA allows a donor to make a gift of assets, such as securities, to be held in a custodian's name for the benefit of a minor without the legal expense of setting up a trust. Under the SCUGMA, the custodian must deliver or pay over the assets to the minor on his attaining the age of twenty-one (21) years. Notwithstanding this requirement, the SCUGMA also ...
On March 6, 2017, the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives released a section by section summary of the tax related sections of the American Health Care Act (the "AHCA"). On March 9, 2017, the Ways and Means Committee completed its markup of the AHCA's tax provisions with no changes. The AHCA is the legislation that is intended to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to and hereinafter referred to as "Obamacare").
While it is still very early in the process and the AHCA is expected to be substantially modified during ...
If an individual or business owes South Carolina taxes, and does not have the present ability to pay off this state tax debt, the South Carolina Department of Revenue is authorized to enter into payment plans with taxpayers to pay these back taxes. Even with a payment plan, DOR may still file tax liens protectively against a taxpayer and his property, and which will remain recorded during the time the payment plan is in effect and until all back taxes are paid. SCDOR also has the power to seize assets of a taxpayer who has not paid state taxes, including bank accounts, and to levy (garnish) a ...
Property tax values in South Carolina are generally determined every five years through county-wide reassessments. Since property tax values are determined every five years (and subject to a 15% cap on increases under reassessments), the fair market value of property is often higher than the property tax value. When property is sold, however, property is revalued for property tax purposes at its fair market value, beginning in the property tax year following the sale.
Example: John purchased an apartment building in 2013 for $8 million. The property was assigned a value of $8 ...
There is a long list of reforms that the Trump administration intends to tackle and one of the items on the list is tax reform. Although there are multiple proposals by various players and significant variations among the proposals, the three primary goals of reform appear to be a reduction in income tax rates for both corporations and individuals, simplification, and some adjustment of the international tax regime. As is the case with all things political, the outcome is difficult to predict with any certainty and perhaps all or none of these objectives will be achieved. This ...
In Olds v. City of Goose Creek, 2016 S.C. App. LEXIS 147, the South Carolina Court of Appeals provides a thorough discussion of the application of the South Carolina business license tax to a taxpayer's gross income. The central issue of the case concerns the meaning of the term "gross income" and how that term is used in computing a taxpayer's business license tax under the City of Goose Creek's applicable business license ordinance.
The facts of this case indicate that Olds was engaged in the business of buying and selling real property. In January 2011, when Olds filed an application to ...
All U.S. citizens and permanent residents are required to annually file a U.S. income tax return reporting their worldwide income from all sources. Additionally, U.S. citizens and permanent who have an interest in or signatory authority over foreign bank and financial accounts holding $10,000 or more at any time during the year must independently identify and report these interests to the U.S. Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN"). This annual disclosure must be filed electronically using Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial ...
On December 29, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (the "DOL") released Interpretive Bulletin 2016-1 ("IB 2016-1") relating to the voting of proxies on securities held in employee benefit plans. IB 2016-1 withdraws the current Interpretive Bulletin dealing with the voting of such proxies (Interpretive Bulletin 2008-2 or "IB 2008-2") and reinstates the prior Interpretive Bulletin dealing with the proxy voting (Interpretive Bulletin 94-2) with updates.
In the background to IB 2016-1, the DOL noted that IB 2008-2 "has been read by some stakeholders to articulate a general rule that ...
The annual federal exemption amount for the estate and gift tax has been adjusted to $5,490,000.00 per individual for 2017. This means a married couple will have a combined $10,980,000.00 in 2017. The $5,490,000.00 represents the amount that each U.S. Citizen may pass, transfer tax free, in 2017. (This is the cumulative amount that may be passed during lifetime by gift and at death without federal gift or estate taxes being imposed.) Not included in this total are annual exclusion gifts, certain gifts for education and certain gifts for medical expenses. The annual exclusion amount is ...
In Notice 2017-10, the IRS has determined that certain conservation easements are now "listed transactions" for purposes of federal tax reporting. "Syndicated" conservation easements are conservation easements donated by a pass-through entity (such as an LLC or partnership) interests in which have been sold, or syndicated, by a promoter to outside investors. Because the charitable deductions generated by conservation easements themselves cannot be sold, promoters circumvent this by selling interests in the underlying donor LLC or partnership entity and then passing the ...