I’m out of town for the weekend, so blogging will be light. But I wanted to ask a quick question for people to ponder. I’ve written that the estate tax applies to the value of property owned by a decedent at death.
The question I have is this. Is it the instant before death, or the instant of death? For Michael Jackson, it seems that the value of all of his intellectual property, that is the value of his own songs, and publishing, and likeness was worth a lot more after he died than beforehand.
This could make a huge difference in the amount of estate tax owed. I don’t have an answer yet, just the question.
Have a good weekend.