更多富裕家庭正在重新审视一种税务策略，律师和注册会计师向CNBC表示，该策略虽能带来巨额节税，但也可能招致美国国税局（IRS）的审查。
More wealthy families are revisiting a tax strategy that can generate big savings but also draw IRS scrutiny, lawyers and CPAs told CNBC.
2017年，一起涉及Lender's Bagels（伦德贝果）创始家族的税务法庭案件，帮助确立了一条路径：如果家庭办公室作为一种贸易或业务运营，仍可扣除投资费用。同年通过的《减税与就业法案》（Tax Cuts and Jobs Act）暂时中止了杂项分项扣除，随后这种所谓的“伦德模式”迅速兴起。
In 2017, a Tax Court case involving the family behind Lender's Bagels helped establish a pathway for family offices to still deduct investment expenses if they operated as a trade or business. The so-called "Lender" model took off after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed that same year, temporarily suspended miscellaneous itemized deductions.
如今，随着《一个宏伟美好的法案》（One Big Beautiful Bill Act）将这一中止规定永久化，家庭办公室对伦德模式表现出了新的浓厚兴趣。但据安永（EY）私人税务部门合伙人、注册会计师约瑟夫·梅迪纳（Joseph Medina）表示，要符合真正的资产管理业务资格，光靠管理家族自身财富是不够的。家族可能需要重塑办公室运营模式、增聘员工以建立专业服务，并决定由谁来掌管办公室，这可能会损害家族关系。
Now with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act making the suspension permanent, family offices are showing renewed interest in the Lender model. But qualifying as a bona fide asset-management business requires more than simply managing the family's own wealth. Families may need to reshape how the office operates, hire more employees to build out professional services, and decide who gets to run the office, which can strain family ties, according to Joseph Medina, a CPA and partner in EY's private tax group. "This is not like flipping a light switch," said Medina. "There will be real winners and real losers because not everyone in the family is going to potentially own the family office.
梅迪纳说：“这不像拨动电灯开关那么简单。会有真正的赢家和真正的输家，因为并非家族中的每个人都有可能拥有家庭办公室。这意味着如果有一笔本垒打式的投资，家族的某一部分可能会比另一部分更富有。如果投资严重失利，则有人必须承担经济成本，而这很可能就是拥有家庭办公室的人。”他表示，考虑到所需的时间和费用，家族必须权衡收益是否值得付出。他补充说，如果这些费用用于支持经营性业务或慈善事业，还有其他潜在的扣除途径。
That means if there's a homerun investment, some portion of the family could be richer than the other. If there's really bad investments, then someone has to bear the economic cost, and it's probably the person who owns the family office." Given the time and expense involved, families have to ask if the juice is worth the squeeze, he said. There are other potential routes for deducting these expenses if they support an operating business or charitable endeavors, he added.
在梅迪纳看来，Lender模式是否适合某个家族办公室，取决于其可投资资产的规模以及内部拥有的投资人才。他表示，通常需要至少3亿美元的可投资资产，才足以证明建立节省投资顾问费用所需基础设施的合理性。那些以服务为导向而非以投资为核心的家族办公室，往往不适合采用Lender模式。
In Medina's view, whether the Lender model is right for a family office depends on the size of its investable assets and the investment talent it has in-house. He said it generally takes at least $300 million in investable assets to justify the infrastructure needed to save on investment-adviser fees. Family offices that are more services-oriented than investment-focused often are not a fit for the Lender model.
需要明确的是，Lender案的判决为家族办公室提供了一份路线图，而非现成的模板。税务法院的裁决基于该案的具体事实，另一家办公室是否符合“贸易或业务”的资格，取决于其自身的事实和具体情况。
To be clear, the Lender ruling gave family offices a roadmap, not a template. The Tax Court's decision rested on the specific facts of that case, and whether another office qualifies as a trade or business depends on its own facts and circumstances.
ArentFox Schiff律师事务所合伙人凯文·马茨表示，家族不必完全复制Lender家族办公室的做法，但该判决提供了有益的指引。马茨说，Lender Management（Lender家族办公室）服务于四代家族成员及数十位成员，他们地理位置分散，在某些情况下甚至彼此几乎不相识。这有助于证明该办公室作为一家投资管理业务在公平交易原则下运营，而非仅仅管理单一家族的共同财富。
Kevin Matz, a partner at the law firm of ArentFox Schiff, said families don't necessarily have to duplicate the Lender family office, but the ruling provides useful guidance. Lender Management, the Lender family office, served four generations and dozens of family members who were geographically dispersed and, in some cases, barely knew one another, Matz said. That helped show the office operated at arm's length as an investment-management business, rather than simply managing one family's shared wealth, he added.
关键在于，Lender Management通过持有家族各投资有限责任公司（LLC）的利润权益获得报酬，这些LLC在私募股权方面有大量配置，马茨说。
Crucially, Lender Management was compensated with profits interests in each of the family's investment LLCs, which had substantial allocations to private equity, Matz said.
“这意味着如果达不到业绩基准，就拿不到报酬，”他说，“存在真正的创业风险。”马茨表示，若仅对管理以可交易证券为主的资产收取固定管理费，恐难以通过法院的审查。
"That means if you don't generate the benchmarks, you do not get compensated," he said. "There is true entrepreneurial risk." Charging a flat management fee for managing mostly marketable securities likely wouldn't have passed muster with the court, Matz said.
该家族办公室的首席投资官是家族创始人的孙子基思·伦德，这本可能引发警觉。然而，基思全职为该业务工作，拥有西北大学MBA等卓越资历，且曾在大型企业任职。
The family office's chief investment officer was Keith Lender, grandson of the family's patriarch, which could have raised red flags. However, Keith worked full time for the business, had distinguished credentials such as an MBA from Northwestern University, and had previously worked for large corporations.
要求家族员工具备特定资质，意味着一些家族必须提高标准。ArentFox Schiff 律师事务所合伙人 Sarah Kerr Severson 认为，这是一件好事。
Requiring specific qualifications of family employees means some families have to raise the bar. And that's a good thing, according to partner Sarah Kerr Severson at ArentFox Schiff.
“处于贷方模式之外的人有一根拐杖，因为他们在设立家族办公室时表面上拥有更大的自由度。这只会招致一种冷漠，而在运营中的贷方模式里这是不可取的，因为你知道自己正受到监管，”她说。
"People outside the lender model have a crutch because they have ostensibly greater freedom when they're setting up their family office. It just invites an apathy that you can't have in an operating Lender model because you know you're being supervised," she said.
Matz 表示，家族可以通过紧贴贷方家族办公室的具体情况（包括其 C 类公司地位）来将审计风险降至最低。
Matz said that families can minimize risk of an audit by hewing closely to the Lender family office's circumstances, including its C corporation status.
尽管如此，据 Medina 称，尽管存在潜在的节省，一些家族就是不愿承担这种风险。“他们不想成为一个让法院判例以其命名的家族，”他说。
That said, some families are simply not willing to take the risk despite the potential savings, according to Medina. "They don't want to be a family that a court case is named after," he said.