Generation to Generation

Collaborations between charitable organizations and for-profit businesses to simultaneously promote a cause and raise funds for the charity have been demonstrably successful and are occurring with increasing frequency. When embarking on these initiatives, clearly your marketing and development (or advancement) professionals are key team members, but remember to put your legal department or legal advisor on your team to ensure that your good deeds are not punished.

Traditionally, families have relied on valuation discounts when transferring interests in closely-held family businesses to the next generations. Transfers of minority interests in a closely-held family entity were generally allowed a minority discount when valuing interests for estate and gift and tax purposes, primarily due to the inability of a minority shareholder to compel a liquidation of the entity. These discounts often proved to be a helpful way for the family to avoid the need to sell the family business to pay estate taxes, by reducing the gift and estate tax burden on such transfers. The proposed regulations effectively eliminate any minority discounts and largely any marketability discounts on the valuations for estate and gift tax purposes. If these regulations are finalized, they would impact transfers between family members of interests in family-controlled corporations, partnerships, LLCs and other business entities, regardless of whether the business is active or passive.