Pennsylvania Barred From Taxing Property Transfer Between Trusts

Pennsylvania’s revenue department can’t tax the transfer of a real estate company between two trusts owned by spouses after the husband’s death, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court applied the real estate transfer tax exemption for property passed on after the creator of a trust dies. “A transfer of a real estate company constitutes a transfer of the interest in property held by that real estate company for transfer tax purposes,” Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon wrote for the court.

The Allen L. Kanter Revocable Trust owned 98% of 430 Stump Road LLP, which was created to ...