Category: Estate Tax Planning
New tax laws bring life insurance trusts under scrutiny. With the raising of the estate tax exemptions, people who had life insurance trusts created may want to consider dismantling them, according to Think Advisor in “Section 1035-Your Way Out of Obsolete Life Insurance Trusts“. The estate tax exemptions, which expire in 2025, have been raised […]
If you are going to pass it on, you probably want to pass it on sooner rather than later. You can pass on a gift of $11.4 million under the new tax laws, without paying federal estate tax. However, that window will likely close and can close soon, according to Barron’s Penta in “What to […]
Giving for the tax break or to better your community? Or Both? Some people donate to charities primarily for the tax breaks, so the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs act may cause them to review their charitable giving, says Barron’s Penta in “How to Leave Assets—With an Immediate Tax Write-Off“. The charitable deduction for gifts […]
Our new President promised to kill the estate tax. Will he really do it? While campaigning for the presidency, Donald Trump repeatedly said he would eliminate the federal estate tax. Most Republicans in Congress share his position. Now that Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have the power to do away with the estate tax, the […]
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s estate tax avoidance plan may be a contradiction. The Clintons have placed their New York home in residence trusts while Hillary Clinton calls for higher estate taxes, according to the Daily Mail in “Hillary and Bill Clinton dodge ‘death tax’ by putting their New York home into trust – despite presidential […]
Technically speaking, whenever you give a gift to someone, you have to follow the gift-tax rules. You don’t have to file a gift tax return every time you give someone a birthday present or a bouquet of roses, but it’s useful to know when the gift tax – embodied in IRS’ Form 709 – needs […]
Second and subsequent marriages that occur later in life present challenges when it comes to estate planning. While no longer unusual or unique – nearly 42 million Americans have been married more than once – planning to provide for the surviving spouse, be fair to children from previous marriages and protect surviving spouses and adult […]
We’ve all heard the stories of family farmers and mom-and-pop stores who make for great news interviews when it comes to opposing the estate tax. But a report suggests that the real force behind estate tax repeal may be a group of ultra-wealth billionaires who stand to gain far more than any small family business […]
With the changes in the tax law, most estates today are not required to pay federal estate taxes and that also means there is no need to file the estate tax forms. For many who fall below the threshold, it doesn’t make sense to pay a professional to file the estate tax forms. There are, […]
A new round of billionaires have committed to taking The Giving Pledge, created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, agreeing to leave most of their significant wealth to charity. That’s the good news. But by making these contributions, these wealthy individuals reduce the federal tax base. And not all of these donations are being made to charitable […]
