From Bloomberg.com:
Textile tycoon Roger Milliken avoided the taxman upon his death almost a century after his grandfather lost a landmark legal fight with the U.S. government over sheltering a fortune from the estate tax.
The 95-year-old Milliken, chairman of Milliken & Co., one of the world’s largest closely held textile, chemical, and floor-covering manufacturers, died in a Spartanburg, South Carolina, hospice on Dec. 30, less than 48 hours before a temporarily lapsed federal tax on multimillion-dollar estates was to be reinstated.
Milliken’s fortune now will pass to his heirs with no estate tax.
“The timing of his death surely benefited his heirs and the company,” said Jock Nash, Milliken’s Washington lobbyist on trade issues for 25 years. “His timing was impeccable.”
In 1916, his grandfather, company co-founder Seth Milliken, sought to avoid the newly created estate levy by giving shares of the company to his children. He died in 1920. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1931 ruled that Seth Milliken’s gifts were subject to the estate tax.