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205. Why Congress Provided for Monetized Installment Sales
201. When You Can, and When You Can’t, Change a Deal after the Fact, for Better Tax Treatment
199. Are We Really Able to Hear Each Other? Or Are We Locked in by What We're Sure We Know?
198. C453 is Presented in Meeting of Professionals, Principals and Advisors Connecticut
196. Liquidate a “C” Corporation with Minimal Tax Cost, with C453
194. With C453, Help Yourself and Your Favorite College, University or Other Charity, Too
193. The Doctor, the Tardis, Time Travel and Taxes
191. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Approves C453 for Sale of High-Value, Low-Basis Asset
190. With Higher Tax Rates, Our Business Enjoys a Substantial Uptick, Both Overall and in Deal Size
189. Can C453 Be Used for Sale of a Business to an ESOP?
188. "Who Gots It Don't Want It": 1099-MISC Income and Schedule D Income
187. Defer Tax on Commission Income, and Increase Your Disposable Cash Flow
184. A 1031 Exchange Scandal: Who Cares about the Taxpayer?
183. Can C453 Repeatedly Achieve Tax Deferral for the Same Money, As in Hopscotch?
181. Keep Your Romance Alive, with Some Help from C453
180. C453 Can Avoid a Tax Hit on Disposition of Assets on Divorce, and Simplify Division as Well
177. An Occasion for Sadness: When Advisers Let 1031 Exchanges Fail, or Cause Them to Fail
175. Should You Choose a 1031 Exchange, or a Collateralized Installment Sale?
168. The New 3.8% Medicare Tax Can Be Deferred in Installment Sale Transactions.
167. Four CPE Credits for CPAs, January 15
166. Twelve Days of Christmas Tax Readings
165. How an Installment Sale Reduces Estate-Tax Liability
164. With Tax Deferral, You Needn't Rush to Sell Before the Tax Increase on January 1
160. The Price of Economic Uncertainty: 1% to 2% Higher Unemployment
158. How Markets Differ from Gambling and Pyramid Schemes
157. Here's a New Way to Achieve the Equivalent of Tax Deferral.
156. Don't Fence Me In: When Government Makes an Entrepreneur Feel Claustrophobic
155. Action Now Can Help You Cope with the "Tax Cliff" at the End of This Year.
153. Would You Like to Move to a Low-Tax State, without Paying an Exit Tax?
151. Thinking Dangerously: When Docile Taxpayers and Their Advisers Give Away Legal Rights
150. For Doctors Who Sell Their Practices to Hospitals: Watch for Hidden Risks, Costs and Traps
149. An IRS Ruling and Collateralized Installment Sales
148. New Scientific Research Looks at How the Human Brain Deals with Taxes
146. Why Our Sellers Want to Say to Us, "Please, please, don't pay, or at least don't pay now!"
145. How Does a Collateralized Installment Differ from a Deferred Sales Trust?
144. The IRS Has Issued Detailed Guidance on "Economic Substance". Let's Learn It and Use It.
143. Why Lenders Like to Lend to Those Who Sell to S.Crow Collateral Corp.
142. About Tax Advisers Who Think Installment Sales Equal Cash Sales. Sure, and I-95 Equals I-90.
141. Let's End the Confusion about the Tax Treatment of "Real" Transactions.
140. New Information, New Understanding and New Tools, Available Now, Avoid Regrets Later
139. Does Your Tax Adviser Read the Law, or Merely Read or Hear What Others Say the Law Is?
138. Avoid Tax at the Entity Level on Sale of a Business, Regardless of the Legal Form of the Entity
136. What Can Be Done for Tenant-in-Common Investors in Commercial Property Facing Foreclosure?
135. Can the Tax on Depreciation Recapture on the Sale of Equipment Be Avoided or Deferred?
134. Say It Isn't So: Political Risk Is Affecting American Business and Americans' Freedoms
132. How a Business Owner's Creative Thinking Led This Week to a Solution for Sale of His Business
130. Today's Producer Price Index Report: Inflation Hits 0.8% in September (a 10% Annualized Rate)
128. Will the Now-Fainting 1031 Tax-Deferred Exchange Industry Ever Come Back?
126. Try to Be Calm about This News, But the Tax Problem on the Sale of a Business Is Solved.
125. The Federal Reserve Succeeds in Its Fight Against Deflation--But Inflation Rises.
124. Alert! Defer the Tax on Your Sales Commission Income, with DEFCOMM.
123. So, How Is That Advice That You Gave in 2007 Working Out?
120. Just the Facts, Ma'am: How to Minimize Tax-audit Fear.
119. How Can One Shelter Interest Income from Tax? Or Convert It to Capital Gain?
115. How an Average Person Can Tell Effective Economic Stimulus from Ineffective Stimulus
109. Will a Real Estate Broker Make More Money, or Less, with a Collateralized Installment Sale?
107. Professionals Who Wing It, and Give Distorted Tax Advice
106. You Can Easily Avoid Tax on Relief of Debt. Here's How.
105. Set Sail Now--and Get Set to Sell Now--with Our Flagship
101. Plan for Long-term Care, While Preserving Your Wealth with a Collateralized Installment Sale
100. How Do Pigeons, Innovation and Freedom of Contract Relate to One Another?
97. #2 in a Series: Announcement: You Participate in Loan Fees, And Everyone Benefits
94. #1 in a Series: Announcing: Tax Deferral with Complete Liquidity
93. Thank Heaven for Little URLs: One That Circumvents Tax-Deferred Exchange Problems
92. How Can the Seller Sell at 2007 Prices, While the Buyer Buys at 2010/11 Prices?
91. Buying a Property? Want to Reduce the Tax on the Lease Income after You Buy?
88. A Conversation about Saving a Particular "Underwater" Home Loan
87. Put Your Defense in Place Now, against the Estate Tax Beginning January 1
86. At Last: A Private-Sector Solution Shows up, for Underwater Home Mortgages
85. Are We There Yet? --Not Now, Not Later, if "There" Means Paying the Capital Gains Tax
84. A New Philosophy of Tax Benefits: How to Obtain Happiness and Tax Benefits, Too
82. Minimizing the Tax on Marcellus Shale Mineral Rights Income
81. "That's the way it's always been done."--How Government and Business Really View Innovation
80. Selling into a Down Market: Why Sellers and Buyers Should Stop the Waiting
77. Defer the Tax on the Sale of Your Business, and Pay the Tax Later in Cheaper Dollars
75. S.Crow Collateral Corp. in Business Week
76. How Can Your Bank Profitably Reduce Its Exposure to Commercial Real Estate?
74. Avoid the Power Trip: Don't Get Above Yourself
73. Two Moves Ahead: Playing Dynamically to Win in Today's Economy
71. Reading the Warning Signs: Is Is Worth Trying to Do Business with a Narcissist?
69. Part 5: Is It a Gimmick, or Is It Worthy of My Time to Hear? It's *Not* Whom You Know
68. Part 4: Is It a Gimmick, or Is It Worthy of My Time to Hear? About Loopholes vs. Substance
67. Part 3: Is It a Gimmick, or Is It Worthy of My Time to Hear? About Black Swans, and Surprises
66. Part 2: Is It a Gimmick, or Is It Worthy of My Time to Hear? How Excited Is the Proponent?
64. In a Short Sale of Your Commercial Property, Why Not Pay Your Loan in Full?
63. We Can't Cause Market Values to Rise, But We Can Increase Your Equity Immediately
62. Let's Opt Out of a Decade of Stagnation in Commercial Real Estate Prices
58. I Sang for My Father: For Optimism in Opportunity
57. Red Flag #2 about DSTs: Invitation to a Conflict of Interest
56. About Clamor at Parties, to Learn about Tax Deferral or Resolving Troubled Commercial Loans
54. 1. Dealburt Retires. 2. "Regulatory-Risk" Aversion Will Reduce Economic Growth.
53. Ready for Prime Time: Our Criteria for Resolving Troubled Commercial Loans
50. The Creative Process, Categorical Reasoning, and Tax Minimization
48. New: A Perpetual Collateralized Installment Sale: Permanent Tax Deferral in Unlimited Amounts
June 7, 2010
Dealburt’s Retirement
S.Crow Collateral Corp. announces the retirement of Dealburt, our long-time editor of The Latest Installment. Dealburt has been the alter ego of Stan Crow, who now takes over the editorial responsibilities for The Latest Installment, first hand. For possible alter-ego analogies (or contrasts or similarities?), one may think of "Bunbury" in Oscar Wilde’s play, "The Importance of Being Earnest," or "Harvey" in the play of that name by Mary Chase. (James Stewart later starred in a film version of "Harvey", and both Art Carney and he starred in television versions.) We thank Dealburt for his great service and wish him a long and enjoyable retirement.
Regulatory-Risk Aversion and a Slower-Growth Economy
I believe that economists and commentators have largely missed a very significant factor that will have much to do with whether the U.S. economy returns to strong growth, or merely muddles along (or worse). That factor is this: Will we continue down the path of becoming a "regulatory-risk" economy, in which businesses large and small are increasingly unwilling to make any move until they receive a permission slip from some government official or agency?
From personal observation, I can say this: The reason why business people are substantially immobilized from trying new activities or methods without governmental permission is that without that blessing they believe they can’t be certain whether doing the new thing would get them into trouble.
Government by Agencies and Officials
Underlying this uncertainty is the perception that the federal government is becoming, more and more, a government by agencies and officials rather than a government of laws.
It’s not that there’s a shortage of statutes on the books—far from it. It’s that the usual practice now is for government agencies and officials to be granted—either by statutory text or by accretion—so much discretion in making decisions that what really counts, as far as business people are concerned, is often not what the law actually says, but what some official may later decide the meaning, scope and particular applications of the law are, whether or not foreseen by the legislators.
To this uncertainty about what the official or agency may decide that the law means, one can add uncertainty about how long it would take to find out and the cost of lawyering up even to ask the question. Then one can understand why there is a growing regulatory-risk aversion on the part of business people today.
I Was a Regulator Once
I once served on a regulatory body, many years ago. As a free-enterprise guy, I was caught by surprise, when I began to think that I could accomplish great things with the imposition of additional regulations. When I was the one who wrote the regulations, I found it easy to mandate that other people do things the way I thought best. When I realized, somewhat late, what was happening to me, I resigned that position, having learned an invaluable lesson.
The propensity to regulate (the government’s side of things) is the direct cause of regulatory-risk aversion (the private-enterprise side of things).
It’s a Big Deal
Our economy is struggling now against many headwinds, but regulatory-risk aversion is one which, as far as I can tell, most economists have not taken into account. They should. It’s a big deal.—Stan Crow
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The Latest Installment addresses situations, questions and issues which are brought to us in the course of the consideration, negotiation or execution of transactions. We don't use the real names of parties to transactions, and we may edit the statement of the question to try to tell the story better. Please feel free to comment, or to take issue, or to raise your own question or situation. If you do the latter, please do not relate any confidential information.
The Latest Installment blog is edited by Stanley D. Crow, who is president of S.Crow Collateral Corp.
Thank you to those who have written, called or commented about Dealburt's retirement. I will miss him, too, and I will convey to him your good wishes. Maybe we can have him do a guest blog once in a while.
-Stan Crow
I'm going to miss Dealburt!
-Evelyn, CPA
Dear Editor du jour--A sad day. But if our friend Dealburt enjoys retirement as much as I do, this day may not be so grim--at least for him.
-GB
Stan, I going to miss Dealburt's wisdom. I wish him the best in his golden years.
-Erich
1. Dealburt is the hardest working editor in the business. His creative solutions and entertaining antics will be missed. 2. By imposing policies and regulations that hamper innovation, government actions are exerting a significantly negative influence on business development. I am not saying anything goes here as we do need accountability, but a reactionary model kills progress and slows the overall recovery process. It is interesting to note banks who received TARP Funds actually reduced lending more than those that didn't get the federal aid. I guess the question is how do we encourage innovative ideas with short and long term benefits and do it with as much transparency as possible.
-Patrick Gardner
To add to this is that regulators, in general, say and do what they believe will keep them out of trouble with their seniors, not what is perhaps good for the business they are regulating. It then becomes a game of how to fool the regulators before running out of time & money. Today's banking industry is a good example.
-j vicars
I think you have articulated a major reality of the disastrous situation we find ourselves in today. My concern is I see no solution in sight...even if the conservatives win big in 2010 and 2012...then what? How do we undo all the damage and get a sufficient majority to change the water torture we have been enduring for the last 70 years. It didn't start with Obama. He is just the worst we've seen yet.
-Gary Gunderson