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67 UCLA L. Rev. Discourse 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/ucladis67 and id is 1 raw text is: 












The   Supreme Court, Due Process and State
Income Taxation of Trusts


Bridget  J. Crawford  and  Michelle S. Simon



ABSTRACT

What  are the constitutional limits on a state's power to tax a trust with no connection to the state,
other than the accident that a potential beneficiary lives there? The Supreme Court of the United
States will take up this question this term in the context of North Carolina Department of Revenue v.
Kimberley Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust. The case involves North Carolina's income taxation of
a trust with a contingent beneficiary, meaning someone who is eligible, but not certain, to receive
a distribution or benefit from the trust, who resides in that state. Part I of this Article explains
the background of Kaestner Trust and frames the constitutional questions that will be before the
Court at oral arguments on April 16, 2019. Part II examines how and why due process applies
in the state income taxation context, with a particular emphasis on how familiar concepts of
general and specific jurisdiction apply uneasily to donative trusts. Part III articulates the reasons
that the Court should hold that a state has no constitutional authority to impose a tax on trust
income where  the trust's only connection with the forum state is the residence of a contingent
beneficiary. Kaestner Trust is the most important due process case involving trusts that the Court
has decided in over sixty years; it bears directly on the fundamental meaning of due process.


AUTHORS

Bridget Crawford is the James D. Hopkins Professor of Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at
Pace University. Michelle Simon is a Professor of Law and the Dean Emerita of the Elisabeth Haub
School of Law at Pace University.


67 UCLA L. REv. Disc. 2 (2019)

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