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--></style></head><body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal">I’m passing on an inquiry from a fellow attorney:</p><p class="MsoNormal">Thanks. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Rob Rowley</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">________________________</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>We recently did a closing where an LLC owned real property and sold their LLC ownership to a buyer for an agreed price. We had the seller still pay excise tax under "sale of controlling interest". </b><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Then I had a client ask me the other day, "When a huge shopping center is sold, do you think the seller pays excise tax if they transfer the entity to the buyer (with possible problems!!!)? It made me wonder if there is some way that sellers get around excise tax....by use of LLCs or something.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Then, just today, a good client asked me if he could get around excise tax by purchasing an existing LLC that owns real estate???</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Have you heard of any such way to avoid it? I haven't and don't think there is.....but I wanted to ask you.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></p></div></body></html>