Submission + - Tax Loopholes No Longer Patentable (forbes.com) 4
Knowzy writes: "A section of the America Invents Act disallows issuing a patent "on a strategy for reducing, avoiding or postponing taxes," according to Forbes. The article describes one such strategy in some detail. The USTPO has already issued 161 of these "business method type" patents. 167 more were pending. The law only applies to future patent applications, leaving enforcement of existing patents an issue for the courts to decide."
Re: (Score:1)
OK, how about a "tax hack:" Using the tax code in a way it was never intended to be used.
For example, the article describes a patented process by which you avoid the gift tax by funding "grantor retained annuity trusts or GRATs with nonqualified stock options."
Re: (Score:1)
I apologize, AC, if my use of the word "loophole" offended you. The editors are free to substitute it with another.
Nothing in the Forbes article, my submission or my reply to you is suggesting that people shouldn't use clever, tax-saving strategies.
What makes this story interesting are a) that clever, tax-saving strategies were patent-able and b) as of a few days ago, they no longer are.