Federal Income Taxation of Estates, Trusts & Beneficiaries 2018

Over the last half-century or so, taxation of fiduciary income has become increasingly complex. While many fiduciaries and professionals share responsibility for wealth planning or reporting the income taxes relating to transmission of wealth, there is little published to guide them through the maze of choices and problems they may encounter. Federal Income Taxation of Estates, Trusts, & Beneficiaries provides step-by-step guidance for dealing with the problems of preparation of the decedent’s final return, characterization of income in respect of a decedent, computation of distributable net income (DNI), the interaction of the system of taxation of trusts and estates and the passive activity rules, the grantor trust rules, and the rules relating to split interest charitable trusts. As always, the update is designed to provide the reader with information that is timely and tailored to the needs of today’s busy practitioner.

M. Carr Ferguson is senior counsel (emeritus) in Davis Polk & Wardwell's Tax Department, in the Tax Controversy Practice Group. In addition to tax controversies, his practice included federal and international taxation of corporations and individuals, principally in the areas of business transactions, including sales, acquisitions, financing, and insolvency arrangements. Mr. Ferguson joined Davis Polk as a partner in 1981. He graduated from Cornell University in 1952 and in 1954 received his LL.B. from Cornell Law School. He earned an LL.M. (in Taxation), from New York University School of Law in 1960 and for the next 17 years was a professor of law at Iowa, Stanford, and NYU, where he was the Charles L. Denison Professor of Law. He was Of Counsel to Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz from 1968 to 1977.

Mr. Ferguson is the author of a number of books and articles on federal taxation, including the predecessor of this book, Federal Income Taxation of Estates and Beneficiaries, first published in 1970. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association (and former chair of its Tax Section), and the New York State and City Bar Associations. He is a lecturer on taxation and consultant to government and non-profit groups. Mr. Ferguson is vice chair of the board of trustees of Lewis & Clark College, a trustee of NYU School of Law, and serves on the council of Cornell University and the board of visitors of Cornell Law School. Mark L. Ascher, Hayden W. Head Regents Chair for Faculty Excellence, joined the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law in January 2000. Previously, he was the Ralph W. Bilby Professor at the University of Arizona College of Law in Tucson, Arizona. Professor Ascher received a B.A. in 1975 from Marquette University, an M.A. in 1977 from Kansas State University, a J.D. in 1978 from Harvard University, and an LL.M. (in Taxation) in 1981 from New York University. In 1992, Professor Ascher assumed responsibility for Scott on Trusts, which, in its fifth edition, became Scott and Ascher on Trusts. Since 1986, he has also been primarily responsible for Federal Income Taxation of Estates, Trusts & Beneficiaries.