|
|
| A
complete listing of the proceedings and speakers is
available on the
Institute's Web site |
Each report can also be accessed at
any time from the ABA-PTL Discussion List's Web-based
Archive |
| The
ABA-PTL List is an outstanding resource for Probate
and Trust Lawyers. Join
Today |
 2004
Index (back)
Report 7
Wednesday, January 7 (continued)
3:45 - 5:15 p.m. - Special Sessions II
Session II-C - The Future of the Transfer Tax System:
Reform or Repeal?
Dennis I Belcher
Lloyd Leva Plaine
Mary Louise Fellows
Reporter: Carol Warnick Esq.
In discussing the original votes on the subject, Dennis noted
that one Senator said this legislation is the biggest piece
of nonsense. You could not put 10 people and a keg of beer
in a room and come out with a worse proposal.
Where are we now? Last year, President Bush said he will
continue to press Congress to make tax cuts, including the
end of the death tax.
What has happened to the Bush tax cut packages? He has always
had to deal. The White House may not get exactly what it wants,
but they do get something done. What does that mean? Do not
underestimate President Bush. He has not given up on the abolition
of the death tax.
Dennis Belcher said that he had assumed that estate tax repeal
was a dead issue in 2004, but will come up again in 2005,
because that is after elections. However, he has now heard
that the Republicans were concerned about their ability to
hold on to a total repeal and so a deal was proposed in the
fall to lower rates significantly and raise exemptions significantly
and make the 2057 deduction unlimited. In his view, the closer
the rates get to the capital gains tax, the less significant
the estate tax will be. Something may come up this year after
all.
What does it cost to repeal the estate tax? Over $200 BILLION
in one year if it were done away with today. Can Congress
afford it? Very costly to repeal.
However, we cannot underestimate the sentiment in the country
on the death tax. Whenever you see a poll, think about who
did it and what their motivation is. National Public Radio,
Kaiser Family Foundation and the Kennedy School did a national
survey in March of 2003 regarding Americans' views on taxes.
Question: There is a federal estate tax. Do you favor or oppose
keeping the estate tax? 54% said get rid of it. Then they
asked the question in the death tax format (used the word
"death tax" instead of "estate tax").
This time, 60% favored eliminating it. Reasons given: The
money is already taxed once, it might force the sale of small
businesses and family farms, and it might affect me or my
family some day.
Then they asked specific questions to see how much the people
know and understand. 56% said get rid of it if the exemption
amount is $1M. 72% said eliminate it if the exemption amount
were $5 million. 75% said eliminate it the estate tax if the
exemption amount were $25M. The answers do not make sense
and people obviously do not understand it. But there is a
significant feeling among Americans that we should make significant
changes to or eliminate the estate tax. Politicians listen
to that.
They then discussed the Task Force on Transfer Tax Reform
which is a multi-organizational group comprised of representatives
from ACTEC, the Section on Real Property, Probate and Trust
of the ABA, the ABA's Section on Taxation, the AICPA, The
American College of Tax Counsel, and the American Bankers
Association. The Task Force was charged with preparing a comprehensive
report for submission to Congress, the Treasury and the public
which analyzes technical and transitional consequences of
the significant changes enacted in 2001 with respect to the
gift, estate and generation skipping transfer taxes, and various
alternative legislative measure that might be adopted to eliminate
the substantial uncertainties that tax payer and their advisers
now face under the existing transfer tax system.
The remainder of the session went through various discussions
with regard to issues to be raised in this report, which is
not yet finalized.
_________________
Second, here are some follow up
items of news from the Exhibit Hall
as reported by Gene Zuspann Esq. and Jason Havens Esq. and
supplemented and edited by yours truly.
We took a closer look at the Faster fiduciary accounting
program now that the West FATE program has been taken over
by Fast-Tax (formerly Zane). While is seems very good, the
making of entries takes some time and effort and is done by
the selection of a type of transaction from the menu bar.
All the Reports produced by their system comply with the National
Fiduciary Accounting Standards (as do the Reports of most
of these accounting programs). They do not yet have the ability
to value securities on line through EVP or Appraise, but they
are "working on that." The software itself is rather
pricey, especially for a solo or small office, the same being
$2,500 per year for the Web-based version (the client data
stays on your PC) and $4,500 for the CD-ROM version, with
a monthly maintenance fee after the first year. They offer
on-site training for $750 per day plus expenses, but we feel
such training should not be necessary for such a program if
it is well designed and truly user friendly.
The ACTEC Fiduciary Accounting System that was developed
by Fellows of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
(www.actec.org) in 1995 and consists of templates and Report
formats that are designed to work with all versions of Quicken,
both DOS and Windows, is still alive and well and can be ordered
from ACTEC for a mere $75 by going to the on-line order form
on the public side of the ACTEC Web site at http://www.actec.org/public/quickenorder.asp.
Note that, for reasons that are unknown to us, sales of this
product outside the College currently are restricted only
to attorneys, although we are personally aware of various
other allied professionals who have been able to obtain and
currently are using this program. Rumor has it consideration
is being given to developing a version of this program that
will function with Quick Books.
No official word yet on what Brentmark has done or plans
to do with the former US Trust Form 706 software program,
but we are trying to find out something for you.
Forms 1041 - what software are you using, going to use, etc.
now that the West EPS From 1041 program is no more? The answer
is far from clear, except people generally seem to be not
happy with what they are currently using, and this includes
such products as the FAST-TAX Form 1041 (formerly Zane), ProBATE's
Form 1041, Kleinrock's ATX, etc. A lot of people were using
and very much liked the Shepards/West Form 1041 DOS-based
program, but that one disappeared a year ago, and the first
West Windows version of the same for use last year that West
issued to replace it was an absolute failure. Some people
have moved over to Profx, but it is expensive and not for
someone who only does a few returns each year.
Other tax preparation programs (Forms 706 and 709) - everyone
is waiting to see what the fall out is going to be from the
sale of the West EPS Form 706 and 709 products to FAST-TAX,
as West issued the last version of its Form 706 product for
decedents dying in 2003 in December of 2003, and none of the
West DOS-based FET, FGT or FIT programs that many of us loved
and used for so long exist any more.
ProDoc DAE software - currently they service Texas and Florida.
They had a Colorado probate system at one time too, but abandoned
that after a few years when Colorado moved to a new caption
format that was designed to accommodate the electronic filing
of all their probate pleadings through their state-wide Lexis-Nexis
CourtLink system. ProDoc is considering moving into California
too.
EstateDoc Systems - we are informed that this system has
modules for all of the Returns (Forms 706, 709 and 1041) and
that they are in the process of combining all of these into
one system. They will also be including probate forms for
select states in some of their systems. Sounds like this product
might merit a closer look by some of us.
The preliminary consensus on document assembly for this year
seems to be that, while it is nice that Wealth Transfer Planning
and Lawgic are back and alive and well, the product that is
currently generating the most interest is WealthDocs Version
6 from WealthCounsel, largely due to its integration with
and use of HotDocs 6 vs. a proprietary engine. However, the
Lawgic booth was generating quite a lot of interest with regard
to its announcement of plans to develop a New York EP system
that will be authored by Carlyn McCaffery of the New York
City law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP, the immediate
past president of ACTEC. Also, Jim Eidelman is in Miami demonstrating
his WinDraft Word-based system that is in use by several firms
across the United States.
Stand by for more technology news yet to come....................
__________________________________________
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT INSTITUTE:
Inquiries/Registration:
University of Miami School of Law
P.O. Box 248087
Coral Gables, FL 33124-8087
Telephone: 305-284-4762 / FAX: 305-284-6752
Web site: www.law.miami.edu/heckerling
E-mail: heckerling@law.miami.edu
===========================================
Headquarters Hotel - Fontainebleau Hilton
4441 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33140
Telephone (305) 538-2000, FAX (305) 674-4607
==================================================
NOTICE: Although audio tapes of all of the substantive session
at the Miami Institute currently are only made available to
Institute
registrants for purchase, the entire proceeding of the Institute
are published annually by Lexis/Nexis. For further information,
go to
their Web site at http://www.lexisnexis.com/productsandservices.
The text of these proceedings is also available on CD ROM
from
Authority On-Demand by LexisNexis Matthew Bender. For further
information, contact your sales representative, or call (800)
833-
9844, or fax (518) 487-3584, or go to http://www.bender.com,
or write to Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., Attn: Order Fulfillment
Dept.,
1275 Broadway, Albany, NY 12204.
______________________________________________________
Brought to you by the ABA-PTL Discussion List Moderators
URL for ABA-PTL searchable Web-based Archives:
http://mail.abanet.org/archives/aba-ptl.html
|
