TAXES/TREASURY: “The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday [10-4-17] it will withdraw proposed Obama -era regulations that would have made it harder for business owners to avoid estate and gift taxes.
The rules, proposed in 2016 but never put into effect, targeted so-called ‘valuation discounts.’ Those enable businesses to pack valuable assets inside the lifetime exclusion from estate and gift taxes, which is nearly $11 million for married couples.
The idea behind a valuation discount is that a minority interest in a closely held business is harder to sell than corporate stock or cash and can’t be valued the same as a liquid investment. The regulations would have made it tougher to claim discounted asset values, but business groups had been fighting the proposal…
The announcement is part of a broader deregulation agenda by the administration of President Donald Trump, and Treasury said more is coming.”
-Richard Rubin, “U.S. Treasury to Withdraw Proposed Tax Rules on ‘Valuation Discounts’,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 4, 2017 04:01pm