LJN Newsletters

Highlights of the latest equipment leasing news from around the country.

At its Feb. 15, 2006 Board Meeting, the Financial Accounting Standards Board affirmed decisions on the remaining issues concerning the proposed FASB Staff Position FAS 13-a, 'Accounting for a Change or Projected Change in the Timing of Cash Flows Relating to Income Taxes Generated by a Leveraged Lease.' These issues had been discussed at the Board's Feb. 8 educational meeting.

Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.

Competitive pressures in the Equipment Leasing Industry continue to build into 2006. Although industry surveys project a healthy 7% to 8% growth in overall leasing volumes from 2004 to 2006, readily available capital continues to drive down returns as well as margins, especially for the best credit customers. In reaction to these competitive pressures, savvy lessors are increasingly taking advantage of a tax strategy involving the implementation of a Like Kind Exchange ('LKE') Program. LKE Programs enable equipment lessors to systematically avoid current recognition of taxable gain on the disposition of tax leased equipment and defer the requisite payment of state and federal income tax.

Same-sex couples may enter into legally recognizable relationships in various states in the country. While only Massachusetts extends the right to marry at this time, several other states have extended marriage-like rights and responsibilities to these couples by way of a domestic partnership, civil union or reciprocal beneficiary relationship. In addition, many couples cohabit, and mix their income and assets, without any formal legal agreement, recognition or protection. Of course, some relationships end. In the event a relationship with commingled assets or income ends, there may be a transfer of cash or property between members of the couple. Depending upon the manner in which the transfer is characterized, any transfer between a same sex couple may have taxable consequences. Even if a same-sex couple receives recognition of their relationship at the state level, such recognition is not available at the federal level because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Accordingly, same-sex couples will need to face the complex matter of potential tax ramifications resulting from the agreements they have made upon such dissolution of their relationship relative to their assets and income.

Retaining a mental-health professional to review the work of an evaluator and possibly to testify concerning deficiencies in the evaluator's methodology only makes tactical and economic sense if the mental-health professional has the necessary expertise and, if called upon to testify, will be perceived by the court as credible in spite of the fact that s/he has been retained by one side in an inherently adversarial proceeding. The reviewer's role is to educate the court.

The nation's first campus clinic in civil rights impact litigation concerning lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people is set to open this fall at Columbia Law School. Suzanne B. Goldberg, co-counsel in two cornerstone gay-rights victories in the U.S. Supreme Court, has been tapped as director of the new Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic.

Since leasing was first used as a financial tool, pricing has been a complex matter. To price properly, many variables must be taken into account including: funding date, credit rating of lessee, residual assumed, tax rate, term of the transaction, desired spread over an index, etc.