Estate Planning Update January 2025 2024 Annual Gift Tax Exclusion: increased to $19,000 per donor, per donee. 2024 Gift and Estate Tax Exemption: increased to $13,990,000 per donor through 2025 (an increase of $380,000). See paragraph 6 below. Marital Deduction for Transfers to U.S. Spouse: remains unlimited. 2024 Generation Skipping Tax Exemption: increased to $13,990,000 [...]
On Dec. 26, 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reinstated the nationwide preliminary injunction that enjoins enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”), including the filing deadlines thereunder. The Fifth Circuit’s Dec. 26th order vacates the December 23rd order that had stayed the nationwide preliminary injunction pending the government’s appeal on [...]
On December 23, 2024, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the lower court’s nationwide injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”). The ruling effectively revives the immediate enforceability of the CTA and its reporting requirements. Just three weeks prior, on December 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern [...]
Long time Phoenix entrepreneurs started a new business venture and engaged DeAngelis Legal to assist with the preparation of a comprehensive operating agreement between the current owners and a phantom stock incentive plan for key employees. The operating agreement contained transfer restrictions, modified voting rights, buy-out provisions upon death, disability, bankruptcy and deadlock, a mechanism [...]
The Corporate Transparency Act dominated our days in November as clients dissolved unused entities, updated current entities and considered changes to their corporate structure. Making sure each entity’s records conformed with the records of the Arizona Corporation Commission and Secretary of State’s office turned out to be a larger project than most anticipated. In the [...]
On December 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) and its reporting rule (“Reporting Rule”). This ruling effectively halts the requirement for reporting companies to disclose beneficial ownership information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network [...]
Connelly and Buy-Sell Agreements – Is it time for a new strategy? On June 6, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States decided the case of Connelly v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 1406. The Connelly decision significantly impacts business succession planning using buy-sell agreements funded with life insurance. The Court (i) disregarded the valuation [...]
Most businesses utilize form documents with customers, suppliers or vendors developed and obtained from different industry sources over time. While form documents are good reference points, the agreements should be reviewed to ensure the terms are internally consistent and comply with Arizona law. Often, we find provisions which are ambiguous, have undefined terms or are [...]
It started out as a good deed, turned into a two-year battle and resulted in a happy accident for this Arizona couple. Lack of business acumen of the opposing party, no documentation, poor accounting, differing legal systems and language barriers made this a difficult matter to resolve. DeAngelis Legal worked with the client’s US accountants [...]
DeAngelis Legal was engaged by a Scottsdale couple to assist them with a business divorce from their co-owner. The owners wanted to end their working relationship with each other and looked for alternatives to dissolving or selling the entity to a third party. However, the parties could not agree on terms or even the process [...]
