In a Jan. 16 article, Forbes noted work by McGuireWoods’ Ron Aucutt, a longtime national thought leader on estate planning and taxation issues, in its coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear a trust tax case with major consequences for states and trust beneficiaries.
The issue posed in North Carolina Department of Revenue v. the Kimberley Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust is whether the Constitution’s due process clause bars states from taxing trusts based on the residency of trust beneficiaries. The court’s ruling could affect hundreds of millions of dollars each year in income tax revenue.
Aucutt, the editor of recent development materials for the Heckerling Institute of Estate Planning, cited the controversy now before the court as the top estate-planning development of 2018, as Forbes noted prominently in its story.
In the absence of guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court, state courts that have considered the application of their states’ income taxes to the income of trusts have applied various principles.