PRACTICE AREAS

Tax and Business Planning

William B. Prugh is a Shareholder in the Firm and represents clients in federal and state courts and before state administrative agencies in federal, state and local income, sales and use, property, and excise tax matters. He has advised clients concerning tax planning to reduce, avoid or minimize tax liabilities and handled tax controversies.

Cases in which William B. Prugh, and other attorneys in the Firm have worked on in the state and local tax area are described in the separate page for the State and Local Tax Practice Group. A recent case involved representation of a client that was assessed back taxes by a state Department of Revenue. The taxpayer claimed that it did not have sufficient nexus or physical presence in the state to require it to collect and remit sales and use taxes. The matter was ultimately settled without the payment of additional taxes by the client for prior years.

DISTINCTIONS

Assistant editor and contributor: Journal of Multistate Taxation (Warren, Gorhan & Lamont, publisher)

Contributor: CCH E-Commerce Tax Alert (Commerce Clearing House, publisher)

KC Magazine in 2005 recognized Bill as a Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer: 2005-2007

Mr. Prugh is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Tax Law: 2007-2009

Mr. Prugh was selected for inclusion in Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers 2008 for Tax Law

COMMUNITY AND BAR INVOLVEMENT

American College of Tax Counsel, Fellow

Board of Regents, Member

National Association of State Bar Tax Sections (NASBTS). Executive Committee

The Missouri Bar

Taxation Committee Chair (1978-81)

Technology Committee Chair (1990-92)

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association

Taxation Committee Chair (1983-85, 1992-93)

American Bar Association Section of Taxation

Tax Practice Management Committee Chair (1992-94)

Co-founder, past Chair, and Speaker: Annual Advanced Sales & Use Tax and Property Tax Seminars, sponsored by the ABA

Taxation Section and the Institute for Professionals in Taxation (IPT)

Past editor-in-chief and contributor to the annual ABA Property Tax Deskbook (Kansas Chapter)

Contributor: ABA Sales and Use Tax Deskbook published annually by the ABA Taxation Section (Kansas and Missouri Chapters)

Lawyer’s Association of Kansas City

Estate Planning Study Group

Kansas City State and Local Tax (SALT) group

Member, Eastern Kansas Estate Planning Association, an organization consisting of attorneys, accountants, trust officers and financial planners throughout the greater Kansas City area who are actively engaged in the estate planning practice.

Donald H. Chisholm Planned Giving Council of Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri

Valley View United Methodist Church in Overland Park, Kansas

Member

Pastor-Staff Relations Committee

Former member of the Finance Committee

NOTABLE EXPERIENCE

William B. Prugh works with business owners on their overall business matters. His expertise includes:

Taxation - State and Local Taxes

Preparation, trial and argument of tax controversies in Kansas and Missouri at the state, county, city and local levels of government, in the areas of income, sales and use, property and excise taxes, including the appeal of cases to the state Supreme Court. See the cases listed in the State and Local Tax Group page for a listing of cases handled.

Speaking engagements before tax groups, including groups affiliated with the American Bar Association Section of Taxation and the Institute for Professionals in Taxation.

Articles written for publication in leading tax periodicals and newsletters dealing with current developments, cases and laws in the state and local tax area. See the partial listing of representative publications in Publications and Seminars in this biography section.

Membership in professional tax organizations and active participation in those organizations. See the partial listing of representative organizations in Professional Achievements in this bibliography section.

Corporate Law; Partnership Law; Business Law

Formation of business entities, corporations, partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, business trusts and other entities.

Reorganization, restructuring and operation of business entities.

Planning for purchase, sale, merger, reorganization or other transactions involving business entities and planning for the income, state and local and transfer tax consequences to buyers and sellers.

Formation of charitable and non-profit organizations, including obtaining tax exempt status from the IRS and state and local revenue departments for income, sales and use tax and property tax purposes.

Estate Planning

Trust Agreements and/or Wills

Durable Powers of Attorney

Living Will documents

Revocable Living Trusts. When estate tax is an issue, the trust document is drafted to maximize the available estate tax exemptions and deductions. If estate tax is not an issue (for smaller estates), a trust document is still recommended for individuals and married couples for probate avoidance and asset administration purposes, in particular, if the individual client should become disabled.

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts. Purchase life insurance on the life of a client (or the client and spouse) in order to provide cash for the payment of estate tax on the death of the client and/or spouse while avoiding the includability of the life insurance proceeds in the estate of the client and/or spouse for estate tax purposes. The premium payment is provided by way of cash gift from the client to the Irrevocable Trust coupled with the use of Crummey powers.

Numerous gifting strategies to reduce the size of an individual’s estate taxes, including strategies utilizing the gift tax annual exclusion and the creation of a Family Limited Partnership or Limited Liability Company to take advantage of gifts of the ownership units in those entities to family members at discounted values.

Charitable estate planning, including the implementation and funding of Charitable Remainder Trusts, Charitable Lead Trusts, and the creation of an individual’s own Charitable Foundation, where appropriate.

Strategies for maximization of the charitable deduction for current income tax and gift tax purposes as well as the estate, gift and income tax benefits of the testamentary transfer of retirement plan benefits to charity.

Estate tax, gift tax and generation-skipping tax planning and return preparation.

Trust and Estate Administration

Preparation of Federal Estate Tax Returns and of income tax returns for estates and trusts.

Advice to clients on the settlement of estates and trusts.

Administration of assets during the course of administration and the distribution of assets to beneficiaries at the conclusion of the trust and/or estate administration.

Business Succession Planning.

Transition planning.

Shifting ownership to the next generation of owners (family member, key employee or others), including utilization of Shareholder Agreements which provide for the sale of the interest in the business upon death, disability or termination of employment of the owner. Many times the Agreement is accompanied with an employment or consulting agreement that provides for the payment of deferred income to the owner from the business as part of the sale.

Developing strategies to maximize the sale of the business when the client wants to retire.

Sale of stock to an ESOP.

Charitable Foundations for clients, including:

Formation of the trust or not-for-profit corporation creating the Foundation.

Completion of the forms necessary to obtain tax exempt status for the entity from the Internal Revenue Service, shepherding that request through the IRS and obtaining the tax exempt letter from the IRS.

Liaison with Community Foundations when they offer the client a viable option to their own charitable foundation by the creation of a donor advised or donor designated fund with the Community Foundation.

Marital and Co-Habitation Agreements

Protection of property rights should the marriage subsequently end in divorce.

Disposition of assets on death.

Agreements between individuals who live together on a permanent basis but do not plan to marry.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Speaker, ABA-IPT Advanced Sales and Use Tax Seminar.

Past editor and author: ABA Property Tax Deskbook

1995-2008

Kansas Chapter, ABA Property Tax Deskbook

ABA Property Tax Deskbook

ABA Sales & Use Tax Deskbook

American Bar Association Section of Taxation

April 2007

Kansas Property Tax Update

Summer 1986

ABA Missouri Estate Tax and Federal Credit for State Death Taxes

54 University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review 590

EDUCATION

J.D., University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 1969

LL.M., Taxation, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1972

B.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1966

BAR ADMISSIONS

Missouri, 1969

Kansas, 1982