Public Policy Archives - The Value Focus

The Value Focus

Understanding Business Value. Realizing Business Value.

Nothing New Under the Sun: Stealth Estate Tax Proposal Returns

Gregory Pearl

A well-known proverb originally derived from the Bible is “There is nothing new under the sun”. Back in 2016 and 2018, I alerted clients as to attempts by the Obama administration to increase taxes by eliminating commonly two commonly used discounts in business valuation: Discount for Lack of Control (DLOC or Minority Interest Discount) and the Discount for Lack of Marketability (DLOM). Eliminating these discounts What made that attempt particularly noxious is that it was effectively a tax increase without congressional approval. Congress was not likely to approve such a change and the administration wanted to bypass it. Further, for…

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“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” – Warren Buffett

“Exemplary persons would feel shame if their words were better than their deeds.” – The Analects of Confucius

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who who can do nothing for him.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.” – Warren Buffet

“The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator.” – Ben Graham

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – Sociologist William Bruce Cameron, although many people attribute it to Albert Einstein.

“Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd” – François-Marie Arouet known by his nom de plume Voltaire

“When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.” – Warren Buffett