Alli v. Commissioner, 2014 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 15 (Jan. 27, 2014) A taxpayer handed the IRS an easy victory when he challenged the government’s denial of his claim for a charitable contribution deduction related to his S corporation’s donation of a neglected apartment building. The dispute centered on meeting certain requirements of Section 170  Continue Reading »

Hamelink v. Hamelink, 2014 Minn. App. Unpub. LEXIS 1175 (Dec. 30, 2013) Since Bernier v. Bernier, a Massachusetts divorce case in which the state’s highest court required that a valuation for equitable distribution purposes use a hybrid tax-affecting model to account for an S corporation owner’s personal taxes on company profits, few marriage-dissolution decisions have  Continue Reading »

Marcus v. Quattrocchi, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19041 (Feb. 4, 2014) In an estate and trust case featuring a major real estate family, the plaintiff beneficiaries retained two experts to prove damages resulting from the alleged improper depletion of trust assets by way of an investment company in which the defendants had a stake. In  Continue Reading »

Hardenbrook v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15830 (Feb. 7, 2014) In an involved retaliation suit against UPS, which the employee won, one of the flash points was the calculation of lost future benefits, specifically the question of what the applicable discount rate was to compute the present value of the company’s  Continue Reading »

Just as film critics predict that a movie they see today will be a contender in next year’s Oscar race, we venture to say that the Tax Court’s recent Estate of Richmond opinion will be one of the most important valuation decisions of 2014. It deals with a number of hot topics: dividend capitalization versus  Continue Reading »

When it comes to methodology, stick to the tried and true. This is the takeaway from a recent intellectual property case involving a patent related to a dual-flush valve mechanism in toilets. An experienced appraiser tinkered with the royalty base and royalty rate formulas—and saw his damages calculation go down the drain. Per-unit royalty The  Continue Reading »

Brave v. Brave, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 570 (Oct. 2, 2013) For over 25 years, Arkansas courts recognized a tight “professional license goodwill” exception in divorce cases. It applied primarily in cases involving professional partnerships such as medical and dental offices and treated the professional spouse’s personal goodwill as his or her separate property for  Continue Reading »

Years ago, many companies dealt with vendors, suppliers, customers and others that were located in the same geographic area. Today, the Internet has made the business world a much smaller place, and it’s not unusual to engage in transactions with entities in multiple states and even countries. While doing business outside your area may open  Continue Reading »

Vega v. Fulcrum Energy, LLC, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 12323 (Oct. 3, 2013) After a partnership dispute arose, the dismissed stakeholder sued, claiming the defendants breached an agreement that required them to buy back his interest, and retained an expert to value the business. Pretrial, the defendants unsuccessfully challenged the expert’s valuation for failing to  Continue Reading »

Sparks v. Sparks, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 1421 (Nov. 26, 2013) As the husband pursued a divorce, he thought it necessary to sell part of his animal hospital to comply with any upcoming equalization payment order and procured a valuation. The trial court stayed the sale during the litigation but credited the valuation even though  Continue Reading »