Bricker & Eckler LLP’s tax, trusts, and estates department offers comprehensive services related to the tax planning, management, and protection of assets of corporations, partnerships, LLCs and individuals. The department counsels clients in all aspects of federal, state, and local taxation. Extensive counsel is provided to business clients in the areas of formation, operation, and termination of business activities and to individual clients in estate planning, including preparation of trusts and wills, estate and trust administration and litigation, and other wealth preservation strategies.

Federal Tax Services

Skilled tax planning is the hallmark of Bricker & Eckler LLP’s federal tax practice. The firm’s tax lawyers advise clients by analyzing planning alternatives which achieve their business objectives while minimizing their tax liabilities. The firm's business clients include business entities such as corporations, S corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability companies and joint ventures. In its business practice, tax lawyers counsel publicly and privately held clients regarding tax planning for acquisitions, mergers, divestitures, corporate restructurings, and new business operations. Tax lawyers also counsel employers on tax issues relating to establishing and administering executive compensation, employee retirement plans, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), stock option plans and various other equity based compensation arrangements.

Bricker & Eckler LLP also advises a variety of tax-exempt organizations, including many hospitals, other health care providers, and colleges and universities in tax-exempt formation, qualification, operations, reorganization, audit, dissolution, fund-raising, and structuring for-profit and not-for-profit subsidiaries. Some planning includes designing tax-exempt structures to enhance operating flexibility and growth opportunities and provides ready access to revenue and capital sources.

State and Local Tax Services

The tax department offers experienced legal representation in the state and local taxation area. Lawyers represent clients in real and personal property valuation complaints, sales, use, franchise and income tax assessment and compliance matters, tax exemption and abatement applications, and a myriad of other tax matters. Tax department attorneys also monitor legislative activity and the potential tax impact of proposed transactions. While attorneys seek to creatively solve tax problems as an alternative to litigation, they also represent clients in tax disputes before the Ohio Department of Taxation, the State Board of Tax Appeals, County Boards of Revision, and the Ohio Supreme Court when litigation becomes necessary.

Recognizing that litigation is expensive and often fails to offer the best solution to a dispute, attorneys use their expertise to resolve tax problems without resorting to litigation. Examples include reviewing proposed transactions for state and local tax impact and reviewing clients’ record-keeping and accounting practices in order to recommend changes that help minimize state and local tax exposure. Tax department attorneys have argued for and obtained revisions in Tax Commissioner rules on behalf of a client, thereby avoiding the expense of protracted appeal procedures. Working with attorneys in the government relations practice group, state and local tax attorneys have also drafted and pursued the enactment of legislation designed to solve clients’ problems.

Estate Planning, Trusts, and Estates

Bricker & Eckler LLP provides complete estate planning and administration services for individuals and their families. Attorneys counsel with clients to meet their individual and family objectives for the management and transmission of wealth. Services include the drafting of a variety of estate planning documents designed to preserve and protect family assets and to reduce estate, gift, income and generation-skipping taxes.

Experienced lawyers counsel clients and draft a variety of sophisticated estate planning devices, including marital/credit shelter trusts, charitable remainder and charitable lead trusts, grantor-retained income and annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, generation-skipping trusts, conservation easements, family foundations, limited liability company and partnership arrangements for family situations.

Trust and estate lawyers are frequently consulted to assist in the advantageous planning of gifts to charitable organizations, transfers of family real estate and other illiquid assets, transfer of closely-held business interests, advice for family offices, protection of inheritances of children and grandchildren, planning for the management of assets in the event of an individual’s incompetency, and planning to avoid probate and thereby insure complete privacy related to clients’ assets and beneficiaries.

Fiduciary Litigation Practice

Bricker & Eckler LLP represents fiduciaries in a wide variety of matters including strategic planning to avoid litigation and litigation itself. The firm has served as counsel in significant matters involving construction of wills and trusts, defense of fiduciaries' conduct, indemnification of fiduciaries, removal of fiduciaries, and breach of fiduciary duty. The firm also has successfully counseled numerous fiduciaries facing difficult situations with respect to communications with beneficiaries and appropriate courses of conduct and action which have avoided potential litigation. Attorneys in both the litigation and trusts and estates departments comprise members of this practice group. References can be furnished upon request.