• “ALL GOOD RELATIONSHIPS – PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL, COMMERCIAL, INSTITUTIONAL – ARE BASED ON AND RELY ON TRUST …without which people have less access to their highest cognitive functions, so won’t be able to be as strategic, creative, innovative, or to see things from other people’s perspectives. As a result, the quality of decision-making suffers, interpersonal relationships become more guarded, potentially competitive, and stress skyrockets… Trust is comprised of four interrelated components: Reliability, Competence, Sincerity and Mutual Concern/Empathy/Compassion. The number one reason people leave companies and jobs is that they don’t feel their manager cares about them…  Mistrust is a hidden tax on every interaction, which can inhibit progress, stifle collaboration, slow productivity and undermine performance… To build Trust with staff, leaders should be approachable, respectful, predictable, confident in other’s ability, remain open to feedback, get to know team members as people, and create opportunities to connect on a human-to-human level, not just role-to-role.”  [INTHEBLACK MAGAZINE – 5/21]
  • WHILE ‘WOKISTS’ DEFEND THEIR THOUGHT CONTROL EFFORTS – forced re-education sessions, scripted confessionals, mandatory apologies and cancel culture – on the pretense that we need long overdue ‘Fundamental Transformation,’ are Americans becoming Sovietized, where lies & hypocrisies permeate every facet of our falsified lives? …The specific strategies which Soviets implemented to extinguish freedom, while boasting advocacy for Equity, Underclass and Enemies of Privilege included: (1) No escape from ideological indoctrination by media & social media fused with government as the megaphone of sanctioned lives and pursuit of dissidents; (2) Educational systems which indoctrinate youth in government-approved thought; (3) Leadership by a pampered elite of elected officials, celebrities & billionaires, all exempt from ramifications of their own radical ideologies; (4) Rewriting history to fabricate present reality, through name-changing/ statue-toppling/ monument-defacing/ book-banning/ cancel-culturing;  (5) Reward for politically-correct behavior (including Emmys, Oscars, Pulitzers) or to stool-pigeons for rooting out others’ past incorrect expressions; (6) Legal consequences for defying wokeness.”   [VICTOR DAVIS HANSON – 5/6/21]
  • TAX CONSIDERATIONS ARE OFTEN AS MOTIVATING AS PRESERVATION OF CAPITAL AND MINIMIZING FINANCIAL RISK in business and investment transactions.  It’s important to be aware of the IRS ‘Step Transaction’ doctrine, which allows IRS to aggregate separate deals, evaluate ‘Substance over Form,’ and deny tax benefits based on whether: (a) intention from the outset was to produce the collective end result; (b) the separate transactions would have been economically significant independent of the others; or (c) at the initial transaction date, there was a binding commitment to complete all steps.  [TAX ADVISER – 5/1/21]
  • ESTATE TRANSFER DURING LIFETIME OR AT DEATH is now tax exempt, under current laws, up to $11,700,000 per person ($23.4M per married U.S. citizens). The likelihood that this Exemption will soon be reduced and tax rate increased by Congress is high. DCG have decades of expertise in family business and estate structuring to minimize transfer taxation. Call for courtesy consult.
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:   

       Over 27% of global greenhouse gas emission contributing to Climate Change comes from China, more than all other countries combined, including 11% from America, based on 2019 statistics. Much is attributable to   China’s 1,500 plus coal-fired power stations.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

        According to his Press Sec’y, the President “is supportive of Big Tech companies taking action to combat untrustworthy content, disinformation & misinformation, to ensure that damaging, sometimes life-threatening information is not going out to the American public… also better privacy protections and a robust anti-trust program.”  Yeah. Good to know: