Why Choice of Entity Is the Most Important Tax Decision Your Clients Make, and How to Get It Right

A pre-recorded streaming VIDEO replay of the May 2024 webcast, Why Choice of Entity Is the Most Important Tax Decision Your Clients Make, and How to Get It Right.

Your clients must or should choose a form of entity whenever they (i) organize a business; (ii) acquire a business; (iii) receive a transfer of a business or of investment assets; or (iv) engage in a merger, consolidation, or conversion. The choice of entity is the most important tax decision that your clients will make. If they make the wrong choice, the consequences could be devastating.

The choice of entity calculus has changed since the 2017 Tax Act, is hardwired to change again after 2025, and may change even before 2026. This seminar examines all viable entity choices; assist business, real estate, and tax attorneys in asking the right questions; and help you arrive at the best recommendation.

• Learn about the current lure of C corporations with generally lower tax rates and the potential for 100% gain exclusion on stock sales.
• Examine in depth the formidable advantages and flexibility of tax partnerships.
• Understand why, despite their prevalence, S corporations are generally the worse entity choice.
• Review innovative techniques (i) to mitigate a bad entity choice; (ii) to acquire a business or investment portfolio, retain the seller’s EIN (if desired), and avoid the seller’s bad entity choice; and (iii) to maximize the tax advantages of multiple classes of interests in tax partnerships.

Faculty

Kurt R. Magette, Whiteford, Taylor, & Preston LLP / Richmond

Born in Ahoskie, North Carolina, July 23, 1958; admitted to bar, 1983, Virginia.

Education: Duke University (A.B., magna cum laude, 1980, Management Science/Accounting; highest ten percent); Northwestern University (J.D., cum laude, 1983; highest ten percent); Registered CPA in Illinois, 1980.

Practice: Senior Counsel, Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP March 2023 to present; Senior Counsel, Spotts Fain, PC June 2, 2014 – March 2023; Founder: Kurt R. Magette, PLC: February, 2000 – June 1, 2014; Shareholder: LeClair Ryan: April, 1995 – January, 2000; Associate General Counsel: RF&P Corporation: April, 1994 – April, 1995; Partner, Tax Department: McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe: June, 1983 – March, 1994 (head of Real Estate Tax Section).

Adjunct Professor, William and Mary (Marshall-Wythe School of Law): Law School (Partnership Planning) Fall 1996; LLM Program in Taxation (Partnership and S Corporation Taxation) Spring 1996, 1994, 1993, and 1992; and LLM Program in Taxation (International Taxation) Spring 1987. Adjunct Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University MST Program (Partnership Taxation) 1984, 1985, and 1986. Annual Guest Lecturer on Pass-Through Entities at Darden Business School, University of Virginia 1991-1999. Adjunct Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Masters in Accounting Program (Partnership Taxation) 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Member Virginia State Bar. Past Member: ABA and VBA (Sections on Taxation and Real Estate); Subcommittee on Tax in VBA Real Estate Section; and National Association of Real Estate Trust Counsel. Director, St. Andrew’s School Board 2003 through 2008 (Secretary and Executive Committee Member). Listed as one of the Best Lawyers in America numerous times including 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Areas of Practice: Tax (partnership, LLC, REIT, S corporation, C corporation, individual, real estate, state and local, tax-exempt, international), Business, and Commercial Real Estate.

Kurt Magette has 40 years of experience as a business, commercial real estate and tax attorney.  A registered CPA, he focuses his practice on business and commercial real estate transactions requiring significant expertise in federal and Virginia taxation. He is a frequent author and lecturer, including time as an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business and William and Mary’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law.