Trial needed to determine Madoff account value

BVWireIssue #147-2
December 10, 2014

The Tax Court refused to grant summary judgment to the IRS on an estate’s valuation of its account managed by Madoff Investments. The issue is whether the account or its claimed holdings are considered to be property included in a gross estate and whether a willing buyer or seller of the account could reasonably know or foresee before its collapse that the account was part of a Ponzi scheme. These are disputed material facts that should be determined at trial, the Tax Court ruled in Estate of Kessel, T.C. Memo. 2014-97.

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