The Tax Court just released (July 2019) a Foreign Earned Income Exemption (FEIE) case in which a military contractor continued claiming the exemption after returning from Afghanistan where she had successfully claimed it.  Because she was in the U.S. and knew she no longer qualified for this benefit (for U.S. taxpayers with a foreign tax home), she also had to pay 20% penalties.  This case, like so many other FEIE cases, is factually-intense, so please visit the U.S. Tax Court website to read it for yourself or download a copy here.  Happy FEIE reading! 
The case is Haskins v. IRS, T.C. Memo 2019-87, Docket No. 25667-15 (July 11, 2019).  

In a case readers may find relevant for their estate planning work, the Supreme Court held Friday (June 21, 2019) that a beneficiary's presence alone was not enough for that domicile state (North Carolina in this case) to tax the assets held in trust, set up by someone from another state, for which they were beneficiaries.  This holding is narrow, so don't get too excited or creative with your DIY estate planning.  Many factors in future litigation could change the outcome (resulting in a state's authority to tax the out-of-state trust assets), including the settlor's residence or domicile in the state that would like to tax, assets located in the taxing state, assets earning money from sources within the state, in-state beneficiaries' right to take withdrawals from the trust assets, and many other factors reviewed in the case and concurrences.  
The clerk's summary of the ruling is a good place to start for further details: 
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Joseph Lee Rice III formed a trust for the benefit of his children in his home State of New York and appointed a fellow New York resident as the trustee. The trust agreement granted the trustee “absolute discretion” to distribute the trust’s assets to the beneficiaries. In 1997, Rice’s daughter, Kimberley Rice Kaestner, moved to North Carolina. The trustee later divided Rice’s initial trust into three separate subtrusts, and North Carolina sought to tax the Kimberley Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust (Trust)—formed for the benefit of Kaestner and her three children—under a law authorizing the State to tax any trust income that “is for the benefit of” a state resident, N. C. Gen. Stat. Ann. §105–160.2. The State assessed a tax of more than $1.3 million for tax years 2005 through 2008. During that period, Kaestner had no right to, and did not receive, any distributions. Nor did the Trust have a physical presence, make any direct investments, or hold any real property in the State. The trustee paid the tax under protest and then sued the taxing authority in state court, arguing that the tax as applied to the Trust violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. The state courts agreed, holding that the Kaestners’ in-state residence was too tenuous a link between the State and the Trust to support the tax.
Held: The presence of in-state beneficiaries alone does not empower a State to tax trust income that has not been distributed to the beneficiaries where the beneficiaries have no right to demand that income and are uncertain to receive it. Pp. 5–16. ... 
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Note that this case is about a state's power to tax trust assets held in another state, governed by documents in another state that select the other state's law as the governing authority.  The full slip opinion is currently (June 2019) available from the SCOTUS website here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-457_2034.pdf.  Google Scholar will definitely post it soon.  North Carolina v. Kaestner, Slip Op. No. 18–457 (June 2019).  
Happy reading and estate planning! 

Beneficiary designations are forms for assets that are controlled by a contract, such as life insurance or retirement investments.  Specific to the State Department, several forms are used to govern the descent and distribution of a Foreign Service employee's benefits.  Several forms, once hosted on the OPM website, can now be found on myData on DOS intranet-capable devices.  They remain searchable by number and title.    
 
The following documents should be completed when a federal employee makes or revises an estate plan and after major life events like marriage, having more children, divorce, and death of loved ones:  

• Contact Thrift Savings directly for a TSP-3 form, and remit directly to TSP to change those beneficiary designations;  
• Retirement benefits can be changed or updated with an SF-3102 for FERS, SF-2808 for CSRS, or DS-5002 for FSPS and FSRDS; 
• Federal Employees Government Life Insurance (FEGLI) beneficiaries can be modified with an SF-2823; 
• Unpaid compensation beneficiaries can be set up and changed with an SF-1152; and
• Visit your investment management accounts (Fidelity, Vanguard, etc.) to update those beneficiaries.  

      The instructions for each form are very helpful for properly dividing assets between beneficiaries, naming successors, and naming trusts, estates, and charities as a beneficiary. 

Note, in other contexts, the term "non-probate" is often used to describe property like this.  That might include private life insurance policies, IRAs, 401(k)s and anything else a person uses a contract (generally an online portal now) to set instructions for where assets go upon the owner's death.  These designations govern, even if a Will says otherwise.  

Apologies for the abrupt move.  Stay connected as I add more content about relevant legal topics: planning for your will or trust, drafting powers of attorney and advance health care directives, taxes, and law & tech.