One of the key takeaways from the recent ENGAGE 2020 conference sponsored by the AICPA was one of particular interest to business valuers. “The pandemic has created some temporary financial planning opportunities,” says Steve Siegel, JD, LLM, president of The Siegel Group. “If you have a client who plans to pass their business along to a child one day—while business values are low, this is a useful time to get a new business appraisal. If you wait, values may recover, and federal tax laws may be less generous to business owners seeking to transfer their interests to family members.” Read more >>

In an estate and gift tax case, the U.S. Tax Court recently sided with the Internal Revenue Service when the court found the value of assets transferred from the decedent to a family limited partnership was includible in the value of the decedent’s gross estate. The real surprise lay in the court's decision to propose a new way of calculating the includible amount. Read more >>

Social media, audiobooks, music and video files, bitcoin, and other digital assets pose estate planning and valuation challenges, explains a new paper. A handy checklist is also provided. Read more >>

IRS and Treasury officials on the hearing panel felt compelled to make a few remarks in response to the strong concerns of valuation experts, attorneys, wealth planners, and family business owners who testified. Read more >>

Over the past week, over 100 new comments have been submitted to the IRS about the controversial proposed Section 2704 regs designed to rein in estate tax valuations. That brings the total comments to almost 200, but it's hoped that many more will come in before the due date of November 2. Read more >>

At the ASA Advanced Business Valuation Conference last week in Boca Raton, Fla., valuation practitioners told us that they are seeing an increase in valuation engagements triggered by the proposed Section 2704 regulations. They expect the increased business to gain steam as the regs continue to sink in with attorneys, wealth planners, and clients. Read more >>

The accounting, valuation, and legal professions are hard at work to defeat the Treasury Department's proposed Section 274 regulations. The new regs would curtail, if not entirely eliminate, valuation discounts in family-controlled entities. Read more >>

In an estate tax dispute that has lasted for over five years, the Tax Court recently revalued the decedent’s minority interest in an Oregon family business by order of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The recalculation proved a boon to the taxpayer. Read more >>

The Treasury has released long-awaited proposed IRC Section 2704 regulations designed to curb estate valuation discounts. It appears that the proposed regulations eliminate almost all minority discounts for closely held entity interests, including operating businesses owned by a family. The proposed regs have triggered a strong response from the valuation community, legal profession, and others. Read more >>

What were the most significant BV developments in 2014? What can we expect for 2015? BVWire posed these questions to the editorial advisory board of BVR’s Business Valuation Update. Here are a few comments. Read more >>