November 2, 2010.

Laura Holden looked at the charred body in front of her. “5’10” height, weight 230 pounds. White man. Dental records match one Sheldon Jones. DNA records confirm it is Sheldon Jones per his physician. Cause of death, plane crash. Probably blunt force trauma to the head since the burned skin appeared to be post-mortem. Clearly, it was Sheldon Jones. Date of death November 1, 2010” She turned off the tape recorder massaged her long neck and called the funeral home, “he’s yours Robbie. I’ll have the death certificates to you in a couple of days”

November 12, 2009

The funeral for Sheldon Jones was other worldly to say the least. It was held at the West Zion Church outside of town. The children didn’t look all that upset for one thing. Some attributed it to their Christian beliefs, others figured they were happy to be rich. There were no eulogies either, other than the minister saying some points of personal privilege. The ashes were kept by the family for a private disposal at sea, so there was no graveside service.

July 15, 2011

Roger Johnson looked at the file in front of him. He had been tasked with preparing the Federal Estate Tax return for one Sheldon Jones. He pulled out the death certificate. “No surprise there, date of death November 1, 2010, plane crash,” he thought. He pulled out he appraisals of the multiple parcels of real property owned by Sheldon Jones. They did the three standard appraisal tests, income, replacement value and comparable sales approaches to get to the Fair Market Value. After adding up all the numbers, it totaled, $735 Million on the date of death, he had debts of $215 Million and a charitable deduction of $100 Million. “Boy, he sure died in the right year”, was the thought that raced through Johnson’s mind. “Wow, what a difference a year makes, $175 Million in savings on Estate Taxes”, he muttered to himself. He carefully filled out all of the pages of the Federal Estate Tax return. After finishing it, he took the return to Christine Jones to sign.