Beer, Pepsi, A Cincinnati Family And The Estate Tax

By Steven D Hamilton

April 18, 2013

Steve Hamilton

I am reviewing a tax case involving estate taxes, generation-skipping taxes, a Cincinnati family, and a beer brand only recently brought back to the market. Let's talk about it.

John F. Koons (Koons) owned shares that his father had bought during the 1930s in Burger Brewing Co., a Cincinnati brewer known for its Burger beer. The Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Waite Hoyt nicknamed a deck at Crosley Field (where the Reds then played) "Burgerville."

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File and Suspend to help Maximize Social Security Benefits

By Jeffrey Marshall

April 04, 2013

Jeffrey Marshall

Are you old enough to be eligible for Social Security retirement benefits, married, and still working? If so, you need to know about the Social Security file and suspend strategy.

You probably know that your Social Security benefits will increase if you postpone taking them. For example, if you are still working after your full retirement age (currently 66) you can delay claiming your Social Security retirement benefit until you are age 70. This can mean a significant increase in the monthly amount you will eventually receive (and the widow's benefit your spouse may someday get).

Your monthly benefit will be higher because you acquire delayed retirement credits. You acquire a credit for each month you postpone taking benefits after you reach full retirement age. You can continue to acquire credits until you attain age 70. If you delay taking your benefits until age 70 your monthly check should be 32% higher than if you had started at age 66.

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Does A Flight Attendant In Hong Kong Have Foreign Income?

By Steven D Hamilton

April 08, 2013

Steve Hamilton

I am going to put you on the spot. I will give you some facts and present a tax issue for you.

Yen-Ling is a U.S. citizen. She is an expat living in Hong Kong. She works international flights for an airline, and her flights include:

• Hong Kong to/from San Francisco
• Hong Kong to/from Chicago
• Hong Kong to/from Ho Chi Minh City
• San Francisco to/from Nagoya

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A Rough Rider’s Eagle And The Estate Tax

By Steven D Hamilton

April 01, 2013

What is the value of something that you cannot sell?

Steve Hamilton

Someone walked face-first into this issue with the IRS.

We are talking about Ileana Sonnabend, an avid art collector and a very wealthy woman. She died in 2007, leaving an art collection that included works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Her estate was in the billion-dollar range, prompting her executors to sell pieces from the collection to pay federal and New York estate taxes. Those taxes approached $500 million.

There was a troublesome piece in the collection – Rauschenberg's "Canyon." Rauschenberg was a post – World War II American artist, and some of his work is described as "combine." This means that the work includes different materials, such as Picasso mixing sand into his paints. The issue with "Canyon" is that it includes a stuffed bald eagle.

There are federal laws – the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act – that says that one cannot traffic in bald eagles, even a stuffed one.

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