Category: Estate Tax Planning
“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act raised the federal estate tax exemption considerably. Before the tax reform law, it was $5.49 million per person for 2017. It’s up to $11.7 million for 2021 ($23.4 million for a married couple).” For the moment, fewer Americans are concerned about the federal estate tax. However, if your goal […]
“Under current rules, the federal estate tax won’t ever affect you, unless you’re quite wealthy. However, that could change rapidly, even if you are far from rich.” Proposals now being considered by President Biden may expand the number of Americans who will need to pay the federal estate tax in one of two ways: raising […]
“Everyone, regardless of financial status or age, can benefit from having an estate plan—assuming you have assets to leave and people to leave them to.” Estate planning is not just about making a will, nor is it just for people who live in mansions. Estate planning is best described in the title of this article […]
“As states address budget woes due to the pandemic, one place they may turn to for revenue as they have in past economic crises is death taxes.” The District of Columbia already moved to reduce its exemption from $5.67 million in 2020 to $4 million for individuals who die on or after Jan. 1, 2021. […]
“As if losing a loved one weren’t hard enough, you might also have to add ‘death tax’ on the property that you receive from the estate—depending on where you live—in addition to all the other costs of death.” Let’s start with defining “inheritance tax.” The answer depends on the laws of each state, so you’ll […]
“The IRS determined that Prince’s estate is worth $163.2 million, well above the $82.3 million valuation submitted by Comerica Bank & Trust, the estate’s administrator.” The Internal Revenue Service has said the executors of Prince’s estate made a serious mistake in their calculations, reducing its value by about $80 million, as reported in the article […]
“Low interest rates and looming potential tax changes make this a good time for high-net-worth clients to use a special tool to transfer wealth: the grantor-retained annuity trust (GRAT), a strategy to reduce future estate taxes, by transferring assets to beneficiaries without using the lifetime gift tax exclusion.” A Grantor-Retained Annuity Trust, or GRAT, is […]
“We currently have the highest estate tax exemption and the lowest intra-family interest rates in history. That combination alone is significant, but when mixed with the potential for lower estate and gift tax exemptions and depressed business valuations, you have a potent catalyst for transitioning ownership.” Anyone with a taxable estate that includes an operating […]
“Federal estate, gift and GST tax exemptions are currently at historic highs ($11.58 million per individual in 2020). These higher exemptions are scheduled to return to $5 million, adjusted for inflation, after December 31, 2025, but they could be reduced before then, as a result of political or policy changes.” The time period available to […]
“Some retirees may be surprised to learn that a portion of their Social Security benefits could be subject to federal income taxes.” Paying taxes when you aren’t working but are instead receiving income from a lifetime of working and Social Security is a harsh reality of retirement for many people. Figuring out how much of […]
