Estate of Koons v. Commissioner (Koons II)  The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2013 Tax Court ruling in an estate and generation-skipping tax case that centered on the fair market value of a revocable trust’s interest in an LLC. The crux of the valuation was the marketability discount. Valuators can benefit from the  Continue Reading »

Private companies that follow U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are required to implement new revenue recognition rules in fiscal years that start after December 15, 2018. Are your personnel and accounting systems prepared for this fundamental shift in financial reporting? Based on feedback from public companies that implemented the changes in 2018, the effects  Continue Reading »

Horizon Health Corp. v. Acadia Healthcare Co The Texas Supreme Court issued an important opinion on future lost profits that illustrates how a damages analysis that has some support in the evidence may still fail to meet the legal standard of “reasonable certainty.” The court’s decision highlights the importance of asking and answering the right  Continue Reading »

75% of all child support is collected through employer-based income withholding orders (IWOs), says the federal Office Of Child support Enforcement (OCSE). That totaled $32 billion in the most recent figures. According to the Census Bureau, nearly half of the country’s 13.4 million custodial single parents have some type of child support arrangement in place,  Continue Reading »

Amazon.com, Inc. v. Commissioner Amazon scored a win against the Internal Revenue Service in a transfer pricing case. The dispute was over the calculation of buy-in payments to compensate Amazon US for the transfer of a group of intangibles to the company’s European subsidiary and the cost-sharing payments related to ongoing development of intangibles. The  Continue Reading »

  Do you know what constitutes pay discrimination in the eyes of the courts and regulators? As equal pay for men and women has become a hot-button issue in the business world due to the #MeToo movement and recent surveys documenting widespread pay disparity, you need to know the basics. There have been laws and  Continue Reading »

Brundle v. Wilmington Trust N.A. (Brundle II) Three months after ruling the ESOP trustee was liable for causing the plan to overpay, the court had a chance to revisit its decision in the context of the trustee’s motion for reconsideration. While the court admitted to some valuation-related errors, it concluded those were nonconsequential. The most  Continue Reading »

What should you do if your company becomes the victim of a W-2 scam? The IRS recently explained how to report the scam and your next steps (and how to avoid being taken in by this scam!). What Is A W-2 Scam? Any company can be the target of a W-2 scam. These scams have  Continue Reading »

In re PetSmart, Inc. A statutory appraisal decision from the Delaware Court of Chancery offered a familiar valuation contest between the discounted cash flow analysis and the merger price. Shareholders opposed to the going-private merger of PetSmart claimed that their discounted cash flow analysis was the best indicator of fair value. The company advocated in  Continue Reading »

There are approximately 38 million private sector employees in the United States who lack access to a retirement savings plan through their employers. Now, momentum is growing in Washington, D.C. to fix this situation by letting small employers take advantage of multiple employer defined contribution plans (MEPs). Is an MEP an option for you and  Continue Reading »