Some 2015 Florida Law Changes

Below are some statutory changes enacted in Florida in 2015 that you may not have noticed:

GRANDPARENT VISITATION RIGHTS. In a major rewrite of Chapter 752, statutory rights of a grandparent to obtain visitation rights…

Recent News

12 Apr 2019

NFL Draft Day and Federal Income Tax

Two concepts that you don’t often see together!

While only of direct interest to a few taxpayers, a Revenue Procedure addressing draft picks and player contracts issued this week does make for interesting reading.

Tax professionals know that the sale or exchange of property gives rise to taxable gain or loss if the amount received is more or less than the taxpayer’s basis in the property, absent the application of a nonrecognition provision of the Internal Revenue Code. Player contracts and draft picks are property. Therefore. . .

29 Mar 2019

The End to Agency Deference in Florida Tax Disputes [Florida]

Many a Florida taxpayer has disagreed with the Department of Revenue’s interpretation of a tax statute. I recently was involved in an audit where it was clear to us that the Florida Administrative Code provisions were not supported by the statutory provisions.

A taxpayer seeking to challenge the DOR’s interpretation in court have had the deck stacked against them under the concept of agency deference. This gives the DOR the benefit of the doubt in its interpretation of the law. . .

24 Mar 2019

Applicable Federal Rates — April 2019

Click here to view charts.

23 Mar 2019

Qualified Beneficiaries–Recent Case is Puzzling in its Logic and Scope [Florida]

A recent 4th DCA opinion on who is a “qualified beneficiary” under Florida’s Trust Code is a puzzler, at least to me. Status as a qualified beneficiary is important – it determines who is entitled to receive an accounting for a trust.

To simplify the facts, 3 separate trusts were held for 3 daughters – each daughter was the current income and principal beneficiary of their own separate trust. At the death of a daughter, the assets of her trust would be transferred to the trusts of her surviving siblings. At the death of the last daughter, the trust assets would go outright to 3 named charities.

Fla.Stats. §736.0103(16) provides general rules on when a living beneficiary is a qualified beneficiary. Generally, the rules include the current beneficiaries, and the next level of persons who would take if the trust. . .

12 Mar 2019

Rizk v. Rizk

By Jenna G. Rubin

This decision centers around the ability of a beneficiary to challenge a will executed in another country even if they did not contest that will in the country where it was executed. Here, the will was purportedly executed in Haiti in accordance with Haitian law. The beneficiary tried to challenge the will in Florida, alleging that the decedent was not actually in Haiti on the day the will was purportedly signed, and that the witnesses did not sign the will on that date.

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