Publications

Not SO Bad – Proposed Regulations for Type III Supporting Organizations

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in Trusts & Estates, December 2009

While few Type III supporting organizations are likely to overjoyed by them, the anxiously awaited Proposed Regulations1 are not really so bad for the most part, and are significantly better than we might have expected, based on recent alarming pronouncements from the IRS.2 The first bit of good news is that the Proposed Regulations drop [...]

New ‘Guide Sheets’ on Supporting Organizations

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in Tax Management Estates, Gifts and Trusts Journal, November/December 2008

On August 17, 2006, a major seismic event – the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) — shook the well-settled topography of Code Section 509(a)(3) supporting organizations (SOs),1 and the aftershocks have continued unabetted since. In an unusually intense outpouring of guidance, announcements, and notices, the Service has been grappling with the many questions left [...]

Surviving and Thriving In the Tax Patent Era

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in Trusts & Estates, September 2007

A patent applicant offers a guide to practitioners on how to avoid infringement, malpractice–and depriving clients of good strategies Just as things seemed to be quieting down after the Pension Protection Act of 2006, along came the latest challenge to the peace of the estate-planning world: tax patents. In early 2006, an infringement suit was [...]

Rulings Go Beyond ‘Plain Vanilla’ Foundations

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in Taxation of Exempts, September 2007

Thus far, 2007 has generated four private letter rulings of more than casual interest relating to private foundations. Unusually, two of the rulings relate to the generally quiet area of private operating foundations under Section 4942(j)(3). A private operating foundation, or POF, is an “elevated” form of private foundation, which, in contrast to its more [...]

Supporting Organizations After the Pension Protection Act

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in Taxation of Exempts, January/February 2007

New rules make Type III organizations considerably less attractive, and present the choice of staying in or getting out. The 37-year old rules governing supporting organizations (SOs) were suddenly and sweepingly altered by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (the “Act”), signed into law on 8/17/06. The Act reformed not only Type III SOs–those “operated [...]

Cold Snap for Donor Advised Funds: The New DAF Rules

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in Trusts & Estates, October 2006

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (“Act”), which so radically redefined the rules for supporting organizations, has also transformed the rules relating to donor advised funds (DAFs). For the first time, the Act accords DAFs express Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) recognition, a tribute to the recent rapid success of DAFs and the charities and commercial [...]

So What’s Left of SOs? – The Pension Protection Act of 2006 and Its Impact on Supporting Organizations

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in Trusts & Estates, September 2006

After 37 years virtually without change, the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (“Code”) governing supporting organizations (“SOs”) were revised and expanded in spectacular fashion by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (“Act”), signed into law on August 17, 2006. Longstanding rules relating to an SO’s requisite “responsiveness” to its supported charities, its [...]

Planning for Community Property:
A Primer for the Other 40½ States

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in Tax Management Estates, Gifts and Trusts Journal, January/February 2005

For otherwise savvy planners practicing outside the community property states – Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, and since 1998, Alaska, under a nonmandatory “elective” regime 1 – community property is often the largest “blind spot” in their practices. Although no one seems to keep statistics about this sort of thing, [...]

Savvy Business Owners Look For Creative Plans

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in Kitsap Sun, September 25, 2004

What would happen to your business if you became incapacitated or worse tomorrow? Do you have an estate plan in place? Is it a “smart” enough plan to protect you and your family from severe losses due to business interruption, court costs and taxes? Here is a checklist of key tools which should be a [...]

De-UBIT-izing CRTs: Recent Rulings

By Gerald B. Treacy, Jr.

Originally Published in BNA/Tax Management, May 2004

Charitable remainder unitrusts and annuity trusts (collectively, “CRTs”) are effectively barred from investing in for-profit enterprises holding “debt-financed” assets, under Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) Section 664(c). Under that provision, a CRT forfeits its exemption from federal income tax for any taxable year in which, in the quaint terminology of the tax legislation, “such trust, for [...]

Books

Supporting Organizations

Published by: Tax Management Portfolio #459 (BNA) (2009)

Community Property

Published by: Tax Management Portfolio #802-2d (BNA) (2009)

The CIBO CEO

Shedding Light on the Surprising Link Between Divestitures and “Zero-Cost” Gifts (2008)

Washington Guardianship Law: Administration and Litigation, Third Edition

Published by: LEXIS/NEXIS (1997, supplemented annually, 1997-2010).

Topic Index