Minn. Energy Res. Corp. v. Commissioner of Revenue, 2016 Minn. LEXIS 715 (Nov. 9, 2016) The Minnesota Supreme Court reviewed a tax court valuation involving a public utility company. The court’s opinion delves into bread-and-butter valuation issues such as how best to calculate cost of equity and how to determine external obsolescence. Minnesota Energy Resources  Continue Reading »

Escheatment could be costing your corporation substantial interest, fines or penalties. The word means turning over to your state any abandoned, lost or unclaimed property, both tangible and intangible. This property is often transferred to the government because a person died without a will, legal heirs or claimants. Every state has adopted unclaimed property laws,  Continue Reading »

The trial involving the Michael Jackson estate has started in Tax Court in California. One of the issues in the case is the fair market value of Jackson’s posthumous right of publicity, which includes his name and image. The estate valued this at $2,105 because the pop star was mired in scandal at the time  Continue Reading »

A recent ruling by the U.S. District court recently stated that a company president was a “responsible person” who was liable for the trust fund recovery penalty. The court found that the president’s failure to pay over employment taxes was willful despite the fact there was a security agreement with a lender requiring the lender’s approval  Continue Reading »

In re Marriage of Chen, 2016 Wash. App LEXIS 2854 (Nov. 22, 2016) Double dip, like goodwill, is a challenging issue for valuators because different jurisdictions handle the subject differently, which makes it hard to keep up with the various approaches. A Washington state decision explains that jurisdiction’s case law and lays down the key  Continue Reading »

Mark Filler, CPA, of Filler & Associates was the plaintiff’s damages expert for the following Portland, Maine court case. Tucker Cianchette won a nearly $6 million dollar settlement in a lawsuit first filed in June 2016 against his father, Eric Cianchette, a prominent businessman. A jury in Portland has awarded the money in contract, fraud  Continue Reading »

Berman v. Unimin Corp., 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172769 (Dec. 14, 2016) How deeply must a damages expert research a personal injury case to produce an admissible report? This was the overriding question in a Daubert case involving an injured railroad worker. The defendant argued the expert improperly relied on the attorney’s instruction to work  Continue Reading »

The 1993 Daubert case says that an attorney is permitted to challenge an expert witness’s credentials, and if successful, the expert will not be allowed to testify. One case before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims shows how an expert can successfully defend their qualifications and methodologies when they’re subjected to a Daubert challenge. SSE Case:  Continue Reading »

In re Marriage of Kirkendoll 2016 Wash. App. LEXIS 2357 (Oct. 4, 2016) In a Washington state divorce case, the appeals court delved into “the notion of the impermissible ‘double dip’” and explained why the concept was not applicable to the facts of the case. The dispute centered on the couple’s only income-generating asset, a  Continue Reading »

Danmark v. CMI USA, Inc., 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 21672 (Dec. 6, 2016) In a reasonable royalty analysis, how much emphasis may an expert place on the patent holder’s profit margin before the analysis becomes a lost profits calculation in disguise? In answering this question, the Federal Circuit explained the different thinking behind the pursuit  Continue Reading »