Insights

A lexicographer’s task of pinning down a word’s origin can often mean hours, and even days, of ink-stained research drudgery. But when it comes to one particular word, even we non-lexicographers can identify the precise time it entered our lexicon: 12:06 am on May 31,…
Continue Reading

For those of you following the case of the Tax Court Judge turned Tax Fraud Defendant, the final chapter of that saga appears to have been written.  In April 2016, ex-Tax Court Judge Diane Kroupa and her husband, Robert Fackler, were indicted on a host…
Continue Reading

No one likes the idea of paying taxes, and having a “gross estate” for estate tax purposes does not sound desirable. In fact, however, the current transfer tax system might produce income tax benefits previously unattainable. If your estate and trust documents were prepared before…
Continue Reading

  Trade secrets are among an enterprise’s most valuable assets, often more important than its other forms of intellectual property. Every enterprise has them—or thinks it does until it learns otherwise in court. As the name suggests, a trade secret is a piece of confidential…
Continue Reading

Since my review of important considerations for short-term property rental hosts in June 2016, the home sharing industry has continued its rapid growth.  Approximately 124,000 guests booked property rentals in Missouri through Airbnb in 2016, a 166% increase over the prior year, which resulted in…
Continue Reading

In response to criticism that Missouri’s employment discrimination law, the Missouri Human Rights Act[1] (“MHRA”), has become too employee-friendly, the Missouri Legislature appears set to make sweeping changes to the law for the first time in close to twenty-five years.[2] A look at the recent…
Continue Reading

Shortly after his January 9, 2017 inauguration, Governor Eric Greitens announced how he plans to cut $146 million from the state budget.  The St. Louis Business Journal pinned the blame for Missouri’s budget imbalance on a drastic reduction in corporate income tax collections due to…
Continue Reading