Swiss taxation of trusts currently and in the future

At the International Trust & Tax Planning Summit Conference,held from 30 October to 1 November 2006 in Coral Gables, Florida,Frédéric Vuilleumier considered the Swiss taxregime in a paper entitled ‘Inbound Guide: What ShouldYou Do When Assumptions Change?’ In this article, theSwiss direct tax system was discussed and the distinction madebetween federal and cantonal taxation, tax residence in Switzerlandand the question of jurisdiction under Swiss private internationallaw and the application of Swiss civil law where Swiss courtshave jurisdiction and the applicable law in matrimonial matters.The article is part of that paper and concentrates on the taxtreatment of trusts in Switzerland, the current position andthe impact of the draft circular to accommodate the then expectedaccession of Switzerland to the Hague Convention.     

Quantitative Differentiation of Bloodstain Patterns Resulting from Gunshot and Blunt Force Impacts

Bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) provides significant evidentiary value in crime scene interpretation and reconstruction. In this work, we develop a quantitative methodology using digital image analysis techniques to differentiate impact bloodstain patterns. The bloodstain patterns were digitally imaged and analyzed using image analysis algorithms. Our analysis of 72 unique bloodstain patterns, comprising more than 490,000 individual droplet stains, indicates that the mean drop size in a gunshot spatter pattern is at most 30% smaller than the mean drop stain size in blunt instrument patterns. In contrast, we demonstrate that the spatial distribution of the droplet stains—their density as a function of position in the pattern—significantly differs between gunshot and blunt instrument patterns, with densities as much as 400% larger for gunshot impacts. Thus, quantitative metrics involving the spatial distribution of droplet stains within a bloodstain pattern can be useful for objective differentiation between blunt instrument and gunshot bloodstain patterns.