Jan 1, 2010 12:00 PM

, By Radd L. Riebe

The IRS figuratively issued a wanted poster in 2009, ‘Wanted: Discounts Dead or Alive.’ Joining in the hunt were Congress, the Obama administration, and the Tax Court

By Radd L. Riebe

The year 2009 was less than two weeks old when Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) introduced a bill¹ with the express purpose of legislatively prohibiting discounts for transfers of interests in family-owned holding companies when the underlying assets are passive investments.

The Pomeroy bill foreshadowed where the action would be in the courtroom in 2009, as critical cases focused on family limited partnerships (FLPs) and limited liability companies (LLCs). The Internal Revenue Service concentrated its efforts on those cases where the battleground was over conditions precedent — if the IRS was successful in its argument, a court could preclude any consideration of discounts or diminish their magnitude.