Income Taxation of Fiduciaries and Beneficiaries.

• Author: Barnett, Bernard

During the more than two decades during which I have been lecturing on the income taxation of estates, trusts and beneficiaries at various estate planning conferences and tax courses, there has been one question often posed by audience members that I was unable to answer satisfactorily: "Can you recommend a really good, up-to-date, authoritative and, at the same time, really practical text on fiduciary income taxes?" The day has finally arrived when I can unhesitatingly answer affirmatively, as that much needed treatise has just been published.

The volume, authored by Byrle Abbin of Arthur Andersen, LLP, Washington D.C., and two of his partners, Dave Carlson, Arthur Andersen, LLP, Sarasota, Fla., and Mark Vorsatz, Arthur Andersen, LLP, San Francisco, Cal., completely fills the bill. It is up-to-date (current through Mar. 20, 1995), truly complete, covering in depth not only the basic rules, but also many esoteric areas on which we have received little if any guidance from the Treasury or the IRS (such as, for example, the impact of the passive activity loss limitations on estates and trusts). And while no tax treatise can possibly answer every question in a particular area of expertise, this book supplies the solutions to the vast majority.

Further, the authors' approach is eminently practical and "user-friendly." Technical text analysis of the often complex governing rules for all the different types of estates and trusts (as set forth in the Code...