ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210078
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON
The estate of the late Roanoke developer Horace G. Fralin claims it is due a whopping tax refund from the federal government - about $750,000.
When he died Jan. 19, 1993, Fralin left a taxable estate worth $17.78 million, according to documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. The estate shelled out about $7.3 million to the Internal Revenue Service, but now argues in a lawsuit that it overpaid by $754,136.
Fralin, who died at age 66 of cancer, was president of Fralin & Waldron Inc. and a partner in apartments, housing developments, office buildings and nursing homes that his companies developed and operated.
His brother, W. Heywood Fralin, who is serving as executor of the estate, sued the government last week, claiming that the overpayment was because of the way federal budget legislation in 1993 handled changes in estate-tax rates.
The act increased the rate from 50 percent to 53 percent on estates valued between $2.5 million and $3 million and from 50 percent to 55 percent on estates more than $3 million.
The changes became law in August 1993, but were retroactive to Jan. 1 of that year.
But because Horace Fralin died before the changes were made, there was no way he could have been informed of the increased tax rates.
Heywood Fralin filed for a refund with the IRS in June 1994, but has never received a response, the lawsuit says. IRS officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday. An attorney for the Fralin estate had no comment.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB