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    TRUSTS & ESTATES, WILLS, AND TAX LAW UPDATE

    James P. Witt

    Recent Posts

    TAX: Carly Fiorina, Multistate Income Taxation, and the Dormant Commerce Clause

    Posted by James P. Witt on Wed, Sep 30, 2015 @ 16:09 PM

    The Lawletter Vol 40 No 8

    Jim Witt—Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group

         A feature of recent U.S. presidential campaigns has been the interest of the press and the public (not to mention the requirements of the law) regarding the finances of those competing for the nomination and, ultimately, for the office itself. A key element of those finances has, of course, been the income tax returns of the various candidates. In this connection, one of the present candidates for the Republican nomination, Carly Fiorina, recently offered reporters who came in person to her campaign headquarters in Virginia the opportunity to review her state income tax returns.

         Ms. Fiorina and her husband had already put their federal income tax returns for 2012 and 2013 online, but it is her state income tax returns that are of special interest. She and her husband were required to file such returns in no fewer than 17 states in 2013, with the couple's connection with some of those states so insubstantial that their tax liability in 11 of the states was less than $250.

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    Topics: tax law, James P. Witt, dormant Commerce Clause, multistate income taxation, Fiorina

    TAX: Assessed Value Dispute Robert De Niro's Hudson Valley Compound

    Posted by James P. Witt on Thu, Mar 19, 2015 @ 09:03 AM

    Jim Witt, Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group

         A real property tax assessment dispute involving a large parcel of land in Ulster County, New York, 75 miles north of Manhattan in the Hudson Valley, has recently been settled. The case is of interest for two reasons: (1) It brings into focus the issue of assessed value as based on the uniqueness of the property versus assessed value based on comparable properties in the area; and (2) the property is owned by a Trust on behalf of the actor Robert De Niro and his family.

         The property, well over 50 acres, is located in the town of Gardiner, New York, and has frontage on the Wallkill River (a tributary of the Hudson). The property was acquired in 1997 for $1.5 million, when its main structure was an 18th-century farmhouse, supplemented later by barns. Under De Niro's ownership, the house was renovated to include six bedrooms and seven bathrooms; one barn was converted into a 14,000-square-foot recreation center, containing a game room, gym, basketball court, swimming pool, boxing ring, and small film studio. Another barn was converted into a workshop and another into an office. Also there were $1 million in landscaping expenses to block any view of the property from the road.

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    Topics: tax law, assessment value, property tax

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