Beth Kaufman Comments on Proposed Estate Tax Regulations in Washington Post

Beth Shapiro Kaufman spoke with The Washington Post concerning the Treasury Department's newly proposed regulations to crackdown on taxpayers who are attempting to avoid the estate tax by using valuation discounts. To view the full transcript, please visit The Washington Post's website.

Excerpt taken from the article.

"For instance, some families put their assets in a limited liability corporation when looking for ways to lower their taxes," said tax attorney Beth Kaufman, who previously served as associate tax legislative counsel for the Treasury Department. "The family can then argue that the assets should be valued at a discount because selling a portion of the corporation would be difficult," she said. Applying that discount to the value of the assets obtained through an inheritance or given to a family member as a gift, would lower the estate tax owed.

"The tax community has been waiting for regulations on this issue since 1990," she said. “In this world, this is a big deal,” said Kaufman, president of D.C. law firm Caplin & Drysdale.