News Letter 9 - January 1995

Now Shipping Protected Mode Version with Regular Version

The current release of Inter-Est 2.00 is Release 23. Starting January 1, Inter-Est 2.00 will only be shipped on a 5 1/4" disk if you request that size. Our standard disk size will now be the 3 1/2" disk. In addition to the standard version, you will also receive a disk with the protected mode version of Inter-Est .

The protected mode version works just like the standard version except for the memory mode and the interest tables.

The protected mode version uses interest tables in a different format. A conversion utility is provided to convert the regular interest tables to the format used by the protected mode version.

We have been working on the protected mode version of Inter-Est since last summer.

For the last two months I have been using the protected mode version to run my computations and have had few problems. You should try this version and if it runs on your computer you will have much more memory available. Read the Addendum for the protected mode version for the differences and how to set up this version of Inter-Est.

All problems we found have been resolved except one. On some computers, the protected mode version toggles the cursor off and on when called directly from DOS instead of from Windows. This problem should not be common.

For Difficult Problems

With Inter-Est you have a good chance to get a usable answer to most of your estate tax computation problems. When Inter-Est is not enough by itself, it can often be used in conjunction with a spread sheet to get answers to some difficult problems. Where this is not enough, we can help you formulate a plan and even offer a special version of Inter-Est designed to complete your computation. Ask about our special support for these difficult problems.

Improved Help System

Hints have been added to the status line when the menu is selected. This should enable you to understand the menu selections better.

Support for the Help Screen was modified so you can now Zoom Help Screens to full screen with the F5 key or change their size or position using Ctrl F5.

An index option has been added to the Help Menu.

The help screens have been rewritten to make them more useful. We will continue to work on the Help Screens to make them easier to use and more helpful.

Interest Computation Changes

Several changes have been made to the interest computation.

Five new hot keys have been added to allow you to move around in the case file input section easier. These shortcut keys are only active when a case dialog box is selected. These shortcut keys are:

Shift F9 Move directly to the federal interest period input section.

F9 Move directly to the 1st state interest period input section.

Alt F9 Move directly to the 2nd state interest period input section.

Ctrl F9 Move directly to the 3rd state interest period input section.

Ctrl Home Move directly to the main case dialog box, closing any secondary windows that are open.

You should use these shortcut keys only after you have made the initial entry of data as these shortcut keys bypass some of the screens where you need to make elections or entries. However, once you have entered your data, these keys will allow you to move back and forth much faster.

Guess Toggle

We have changed the Guess Toggle to improve its performance.

GRAR 3.00 has been completed and will be ready for distribution in March 1995. This program is based on RAR 3.00 and will generate a report of gift tax audit instead of a report on estate tax audit for use by an IRS Estate Tax Attorney. It will compute the gift tax liability and generate a report of audit changes for up to six periods and carry forward numbers from the earlier periods. It does not do interrelated computations, but does have worksheets to allow the computation of the generation-skipping tax liability and the schedule of prior gifts.

Any IRS employee may receive a free copy by contacting:

George Dewey, Jr.
Supervisory Attorney
Estate and Gift Tax, Territory 2, Area 5
Jacksonville, Florida 32216
Office: (904) 665-1300 ; 665-1298
Fax: (904) 665-1345
Email Address: George.Dewey@irs.gov

Anyone else wanting a copy should contact Cammack Computations Co.

Federal Interest Rate Change

Remember to keep your interest tables current. The federal rate on deficiencies increased from 8% to 9% starting October 1, 1994. Change your interest tables to reflect this increase.

The federal interest rate on refunds also increased from its 7% to 8% starting October 1, 1994.

These rates remain the same for the first quarter of 1995.

Accuracy related penalties

Several adjustments have been made to the computation of the accuracy related penalties. Each tax (Estate Tax, GST Tax and Increased Estate Tax) has been given its own penalty provision. This makes the penalty computations more accurate when there is more than one type of tax associated with a return.

To compute this penalty on the Estate Tax, you must compute the tax separately with the taxable attributable to the fraud or negligence removed.

To compute the penalties on the Increased Estate Tax, you enter the accumulations drawing the penalty.

There are two provisions for computing the penalties on the GST tax. You can elect a simple option where you enter the taxable attributable to fraud or neigligence for Part II and Part III. This should work where the amount is a fixed dollar amount. The second method is to compute the tax without the taxable drawing penalty in a separate run just like the Estate Tax Provisions.

These changes were made to conform to the method and order of computation required by Regs. §1.6664-3 and IRM (20)926.2.

Pennsylvania Change

Pennsylvania has changed its law to phase out the tax on the surviving spouse starting on July 1, 1994. The tax rate drops to 0% in 1998. Inter-Est has been modified to allow for this change.

Several changes were made in the computation of New York tax.

The computation of the New York unified credit was changed for dates of death on or after June 6, 1994.

A new credit was added for dates of death on or after June 6, 1994. This is the credit for closely held property. This credit is equal to five percent (5%) of the first $15 million in value of qualified property that was owned by the decedent and has vested in one or more of the qualified heirs. The value of all interests eligible for the credit is the value at which the interests are includible in the New York gross estate. See §958-b of the New York Code. Inter-Est will recompute this credit for the purpose of the computation of the right of reimbursement created by §2044, but will not recompute this credit for the purpose of the credit for tax on prior transfers. Inter-Est assumes that the credit does not change.

In addition, there was a change in the computation of New York Estate Tax where there is out of state property for dates fo death after 5/25/90.

Inter-Est Version 1.10S

As the IRS has completed the phaseout of their old Zenith 171 computers, we will no longer provide copies of Inter-Est Version 1.10S except where there is an emergency.

We have not made any changes to Inter-Est Version 1.10S since our last newsletter.

All users of Version 1.10S and earlier version are urged to upgrade to Version 2.00.

RAR 3.00 was released last August. While we have had a few minor problems, they have been resolved. A new release of RAR 3.0 for use by the IRS will be made at the same time that GRAR 3.00 is released.

Also being released at the same time will be an upgrade of the HERB shell. HERB is a front end that allows IRS Estate Tax Attorneys to access their programs from an easy to use interface that takes no memory from the programs it runs.

HERB, RAR 3.00, GRAR 3.00, and Inter-Est 2.00 are intended to provide a complete set of programs for use by IRS Estate Tax Attorneys that present a common interface, compute the tax and generate reports that look good and have the correct answers.

Additional Option in Complex

An additional option has been added for computing the complex fraction. The denominator of the complex fraction can now be computed using one of three different numbers.

1. Taxable Estate.
2. Taxable Estate plus Adjusted Taxable Gifts.
3. Taxable Estate less §2044 property.

The third option was added to support a New York computation.

This change should made our complex computation slightly more flexible.

List boxes

Two changes were made to the way List Boxes work in Inter-Est. You can now double-click on an item in a list box to select it and invoke the default command button.

Command buttons in the dialog box can also be reached by hitting their hot key while the list box is selected.

For example, assume the default command button was "edIt" with the ‘I’ being the hot key. You can invoke this key from the list box by:

1. Select an option in the list box using the arrow keys and then hit Return.

2. Double Click an option in the list box using your mouse. This will select the option and invoke the default command button.

3. Select an option in the list box using the arrow keys and then hit I.

4. Select an option in the list box using the arrow keys and then hit Alt I

As you can see, it is now easier to work in list boxes and you don’t have to worry about when to use the Alt key.

State Input Section

The State data Input Dialog Box has been changed. Instead of reaching the state input from the main state dialog box, you now reach the state data input from the second level dialog box where you select the method of computation.

This should reduce the confusion caused by the old method. While this will put the state input screen one level of dialog box deeper, the new hot keys should compensate for this some.

Maintenance and Support

If you are having trouble with a computation using Inter-Est, please call us. We provide support to all of our users.

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