Posted on

T’was The Month Before ‘Cliff’-mas…

As I attended a Christmas play with my family last weekend (TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS @ the Kelsey Theater), I tried for a couple of hours to completely ‘unplug’ myself from the office and focus on being “there” with the family.

Sadly,  I found myself so preoccupied with the year-end planning we are doing in the office (for client’s seeking to tax advantage of the increased exemption this year), that visions of ‘esate-planning’ danced in my head throughout the show.  My mind must have somehow mixed the two concepts, because the idea for the below poem came to me.

(Don’t worry, I won’t give up my day job.)

T’was The Month Before ‘Cliff’-mas…

T’was the month before the New Year and all through the country,

all were in a good mood, except (that is), Trust Attorneys.

 

It seems like we will miss all the holiday cheer,

as our procrastinating clients finally plan out of fear.

 

It will be taxed at their deaths or when they give it away,

But much less for those who actually plan today.

 

The gifts on our minds will involve Gift Tax Exemptions,

instead of Barbie and Wii’s  and Sony Play-stations. 

 

Oh, how we wished we could drink, eat and relax,

and forget for a while about the Gift & Estate Tax.

 

The House passed a bill and so did the Senate,

but since the mid-summer, they’ve just sat on it.

 

As $1 Million may well be the new Exemption,

we are swamped with the tasks of trusts cre-a-tion,

 

So on New Year’s Eve, make my drink real stiff,

as I’ve tried to steer clients from their own fiscal cliff.

Posted on

An Update on Developments, or ‘lack thereof’, on Estate Tax Reform, and a Little Estate Tax Trivia

Two articles about this week sought to shed some light on the estate tax developments, political positions as it pertains to the estate taxes & the “Fiscal Cliff.”

The Associated Press went the route of detailing the specifics of bills passed in the Democratic-controlled Senate in July and the Republican-led House in August:

Senate: Does not address the estate tax, allowing the top rate to increase from 35 percent to 55 percent. Currently, the first $5.1 million of an estate is exempt from the federal estate tax; the exemption rises to $10.2 million for married couples. If the tax cut expires, the exemption would be reduced to $1 million for individuals and $2 million for couples.

House: Extends the top rate of 35 percent through 2013, with the larger exemption [$5.12 million.]

You can find the article by clicking here

A Yahoo! article speaks a little more specifically about President Obama’s views on the estate tax, divisions among the Democrats within the party and it’s impact on illiquid assets such as farms and ranches (click here for the full article.) A testament to the discord between the two parties is their inability to agree upon a label for the tax:

The divide between the political parties over the tax is so wide that they cannot even agree on a name for it. Democrats call it the estate tax, as it is described in law.

Republicans, who generally want to repeal it, have another, more provocative name. They call it the “death tax” and characterize it as a penalty on being wealthy and successful.

Ever wonder what the highest rate in history has been for the Estate Tax? Although it has fluctuated, the rate hit a high of 77% before World War II.

According to the article:

“It was a Republican president, Teddy Roosevelt, that proposed the first permanent inheritance tax, arguing that inheritance of “enormous fortunes” does a society no good.

“No advantage comes either to the country as a whole or to the individuals inheriting the money by permitting the transmission in their entirety of the enormous fortunes which would be affected by such a tax,” Roosevelt said.

Posted on

Estate Tax reform coming soon… or is it?

What can accountants and financial advisors tell their clients to expect from Congress with respect to Estate Tax reform? According to a recent article in Trusts & Estates magazine (available at http://trustsandestates.com/wealth_watch/estate-tax-reform1028/), the answer may surprise you. Here are some of the highlights:

There is an increasing possibility that Congress just may do nothing and send us back to the 2001 scenario. Advisors should consider taking immediate action to plan properly for that, and other possible scenarios. Indeed, we have to advise them in 2009 to take into account any number of possible scenarios.

“Everyone” predicted that by 2009 we’d have seen an amendment to the estate tax law. So far, “everyone” was wrong (although, admittedly, there are still almost 2 months left.)

Here’s the current law:

In 2009, we have. . .
$3.5 million generation skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption
$3.5 million exclusion from estate tax
$1 million exclusion from gift tax
45 percent top marginal rate
No state death tax credit

In 2010, there’s supposed to be . . .
No GST tax
No estate tax
$1 million exclusion from gift tax

And in 2011, we’re slated to get . . .
$1 million GST exemption
$1 million exclusion from estate tax
$1 million exclusion from gift tax
55 percent top marginal rate
State death tax credit reappears

Bear in mind that this does NOT address the state’s ‘take’ on estate taxes (i.e. New Jersey’s estate tax exemption is STILL at the pre-EGTRRA level of $675,000.00)

What will happen? Here are some possibilities:

· Congress will do nothing.

· Congress will enact a one-year extension of the 2009 law through 2010 only.

· Congress will enact a one-year extension of the 2009 law and make significant estate tax law changes in 2010 to extend permanently, or make significant estate tax law changes in 2009 to extend permanently, including:

-making the 2009 law permanent;

-reducing or increasing the various exclusions;

-unifying the gift and estate exclusions;

-reinstating the state death tax credit.

Planning in such an unpredictable climate requires the implementation of flexibility in estate plans, the use ofcreativity in maximizing exemptions & deductions, all whilekeeping an eye on Congress for any last minute reform.

Posted on

Estate Planning for Non-Citizen Spouses

When one or both spouses in a married couple living in the United States are not citizens of the United States, special planning may be required to avoid hefty tax consequences for transfers during lifetime or at death of the spouses. This is because Gift and Estate tax laws treat non-citizens (permanent & temporary residents) residing in the United States differently than citizens.

Because the taxation system regards both spouses in a married couple as one, a spouse who is a citizen can receive unlimited tax-free transfers of assets & property from his or her spouse. This is known as the unlimited martial deduction. However, the rationale for treating non-citizens spouses differently is the government’s concern that a non-citizen spouse will receive this wealth without having been taxed and then subsequently move out of the U.S. and/or transfer it where it may never be taxed by the U.S. government. Therefore, this marital deduction is not an option for non-citizen spouses.

Here are some commonly used techniques to consider when trying to replicate the benefits afforded to citizen spouses to non-citizen spouses:

– Equalize the Estates for both spouses during their lifetimes. Although the amount changes every year to adjust for inflation, in 2009 a spouse may transfer by gift up to $133,000 of property to her non-citizen spouse without incurrence of a gift tax. This amount should be used to “even up” each spouse’s estate if the value of assets titled in each of the spouses names spouses is not even.

– Maximize the Estate Tax exemption. In 2009, upon his death, a spouse may transfer to his non-citizen spouse an amount up to the amount of the federal estate tax exemption amount without triggering the federal estate tax. Note that while this exemption amount is $3.5 million for 2009, the legislature is reportedly currently acting to either make this amount permanent or to reduce it.

– Use of a QDOT Trust. In addition to giving a non-citizen spouse the option to disclaim or “pass” on what he may be getting by including a disclaimer trust, a Qualified Domestic Trust or QDOT may also be used to postpone the estate tax when more than the amount of the personal federal estate tax exemption is left to a non-U.S. citizen spouse by the other spouse. This option allows flexibility for citizenship changes of the surviving spouse, law changes after death, and a re-evaluation of financial circumstances.

In conclusion, although Estate & Gift tax laws are intended to treat citizen spouses differently that non-citizen spouses, the implementation of available techniques with careful planning can produce favorable results under the current law while retaining flexibility for changing circumstances.