The IRS wants to know how much you’re gifting over the course of your lifetime. This is because while gifts may be based on generosity, they are also a strategy for avoiding taxes, including estate taxes, reports The Street in a recent article “Do I Need to File a Gift Tax Return?” Knowing whether you…
Modern trusts can be drafted, and existing trusts can be modified, to provide flexibility allowing a family the ability to navigate an unknown future and preserve family legacies intergenerationally.
If you want to protect your family’s legacy from unnecessary taxes, divorce and creditors over the course of many generations, a dynasty trust could be your best friend.
Estate planning can help you pass on assets to your heirs, while potentially minimizing taxes. When gifting assets, it’s important to consider when and how the generation-skipping tax transfer (GSTT) may apply.
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.
Maybe not tomorrow, but the sunset of our historically high estate tax exemptions is coming—and with the election on its way, it could be sooner than you think.
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.
If you like the way the laws are today, you need to take advantage of them now, before they are changed tomorrow. In other words, use it or lose it.
This type of trust can be established to benefit your spouse, children, grandchildren and other descendants. However, it may be more appropriate in some situations than others. Getting to know the details of what an IDGT is and how it works can help you decide if it makes sense for you.
