Recently, while in the midst of a managing a complicated commercial real estate closing, I took a few hours off to attend an orchestra concert. During intermission, while orchestra took a break, a string quartet played in the lobby. It was then that I realized that the typical commercial real estate transaction frequently has at least 15 different roles and is much more like an orchestra than a string quartet.
Read MoreIt is not unusual to hear that a company is being investigated by the government over immigration issues. But, what is unusual about this particular investigation, however, is that it is being conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates securities, rather than the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which regulates immigration and visas, including EB-5 visas.
Read MoreRecently there has been public outrage over learning that a number of powerful individuals and institutions repeatedly had entered into confidential settlements of sexual harassment and sexual abuse claims (I’ll call both sexual harassment for the remainder of this blog), only to have the perpetrators move on to victimize others – sometimes dozens or even hundreds of others. When reports came out that those “hush-money” settlements were tax deductible, there was a demand for action to stop what was seen as an effective public subsidy these settlements via tax savings.
Read MoreImagine you are a professional musician who is building a performance career. You hire an artist manager to promote you, obtain performance gigs, and to negotiate contracts for your gigs for a period of five years. You hire an artist manager to promote you, obtain performance gigs, and to negotiate contracts for your gigs for a period of five years. Your manager’s primary compensation is a percentage of the compensation you receive from your gigs, plus reimbursement of certain of the manager’s costs. This arrangement is designed to incentivize your artist manager to work hard to get you as many bookings as possible as soon as possible.
Read MoreMost of the time, if one musician in an orchestra misses a note, it doesn’t impact the orchestra as a whole. Certainly, if a musician misses a note in one performance, it should not impact a future performance of the orchestra or musicians who join the orchestra in the future. Until now, the same as been true of partnerships, limited liability companies, and other entities taxed as partnerships under federal tax law.
Read MoreFine violins do not have serial numbers, but they do typically have a label inside identifying the maker and frequently the year and location where the violin was made. Many violin makers, or luthiers[i] as they are known, like to copy well-known instruments, sometimes even down to the label inside the instrument, and the most famous violin maker, Antonio Stradivari, is also the most frequently copied.
Read MoreA real estate investor might start small, with a single duplex and eventually, through a series of purchases, sales, and reinvestments, the real estate investor may own multiple large apartment complexes, office buildings, or even high-rise mixed-use buildings. In those instances, although the primary purchase was real estate, each purchase would come with a certain amount of personal property in the form of appliances, furnishings, supplies, and other equipment necessary to operate the real estate. Comparing a real estate transaction to a violin purchase, purchasing the violin would be akin to purchasing the real property, and purchasing the bow and case would be more like the personal property that is purchased with the real estate investment.
Read MoreConsider that you are a professional violinist who lives in Maryland. To build your career as a solo violinist you are planning your first tour to Pennsylvania and Ohio, and you need to attract local audiences in those states. It would be a lot more difficult if there were rules that required that your advertisements for the Ohio concerts only reached individuals in Ohio and the advertisements for the Pennsylvania concerts only reached individuals in Pennsylvania.
Read MoreMy parents grew up during the Great Depression. As children they had, by necessity, been trained to save everything that had any possible future use, and that carried into their adult lives. It is no surprise that I carried the idea of savings things which might become useful. When I became a violinist, that extended to used violin strings. When I started playing the violin, there was a logic to saving used strings in that they had already been “stretched out.” Just as I hung onto old strings after their usefulness was over, a company, also, can fall victim to keeping records so long that they interfere with the company’s business.
Read MoreSustainability simply means the ability to be maintained or to continue. Today, we usually think of sustainability in the context of energy or the environment. However, sustainability also is important to every individual and every business, because without a sustainable foundation, the individual or business will “burn out.”
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