While Michigan may have a favorable provision in its Trust Code with respect to a beneficiary’s interest in a discretionary trust, i.e., that it is not a property interest subject to the claims of creditors, other states are apparently free to ignore that Trust Code classification when it better suits that state’s public policy.

In the past we have covered the ability of the IRS to ask the Secretary of State to deny, revoke or limit an individual’s passport, based upon a certification that the individual has a seriously delinquent tax debt. [IRC 7345.] Once the IRS has determined that an individual has a seriously delinquent tax debt, it notifies the Treasury Secretary, who shall transmit the certification to the Secretary of State “for action with respect to denial, revocation, or limitation’ of the individual’s passport. The individual then has the right to challenge that certification in federal court in a civil action as either erroneous or on the grounds that the IRS failed to reverse the certification when required. [IRC 7345(e)(1).] The forfeiture of an individual’s passport was unsuccessfully challenged in a recent federal court decision.

A CLAT is infrequently used in estate planning because of the cost and complexity associated with administering an irrevocable trust. In addition, CLATs are normally only used by wealthy individuals who are very charitably inclined through annual gifts and donations. If the currently high applicable exemption amounts persist going forward, few individuals will be CLAT candidates, unless they have already fully used their available applicable amounts and they still wish to transfer more wealth to their heirs gift or estate tax-free, probably through testamentary CLATs.

Is a worker as a matter of economic reality in business for themselves? The answer can depend on which federal law, or federal agency, is looking at the worker’s relationship with the party who hires the worker.

RMDs have always had to be taken before any Roth IRA conversion. The Final Regulations clarify that all an individual’s entire (or aggregate) RMD for the calendar year must be fully withdrawn from their traditional IRA(s) prior to making any Roth IRA conversion, not just the RMD that is associated with the traditional IRA that is to be converted to a Roth IRA. Sequencing matters.

Now may be a good time to engage in a Roth IRA conversion when stock prices are down. For those who are thinking about a conversion, they might want to accelerate that decision while values are low. Balanced against an accelerated decision to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is the risk that market values will go even lower, and a Roth conversion now is permanent, and it can no longer be recharacterized using ‘hindsight.’

If an individual elected to take substantially equal periodic payments (SEPPs) to avoid the 10% early distribution penalty, he/she may want to consider making a one-time switch to a different method to calculate their annual SEPP distribution with the recent market turmoil.

A trustee can exercise a power to adjust and treat trust principal as trust income in certain situations under Michigan’s version of the Uniform Fiduciary Principal and Income Act. It may soon be possible, if a pending bill is passed, for a trustee also have the power to convert a ‘pay income’ trust distribution standard to a unitrust distribution standard, thus simplifying the trust’s administration.

When the market is a rollercoaster ride, its time to consider the net unrealized appreciation (NUA) tax strategy.

With the expected reduction in governmental programs during President Trump’s administration, more pressure will be placed on publicly supported charities to make up the difference in providing needed services for marginalized members of society. Any small step that Congress can take to encourage philanthropy would be welcome to help address the coming austerity.