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Showing 4 posts tagged tax.
Put Portability in Your Plan – Changing Gift Tax Exemption Regulations for Spouses
Personal estate plans that reflect yours and your loved ones’ needs can help ease financial burdens for them in the future. New guidance from the IRS takes both yours and your spouse’s estate tax exemptions into consideration, allowing for the option to elect “portability” of your exemptions in certain cases. This opportunity can help to alleviate financial stress for those who have unfortunately lost a spouse, but its implementation is time sensitive, so it’s important to know how and when to act. More >
Give Now, Save Later – Capturing Current Estate and Gift Tax Exemptions
Many people think of an estate plan as a way for their assets to be distributed in the future, after their deaths. However, in some situations, it may be more advantageous to make at least some of those planned gifts now—and help your loved ones avoid some of the financial burden of estate taxes. Especially for individuals with high net worth, taxes could become much greater when the currently increased lifetime exemption amount “sunsets” on January 1, 2026. More >
Don’t Delay—Proposed Changes to Estate Tax Law Aim to Eliminate Step-Up in Basis
If you’ve been waiting for the “right time” to start planning your estate, don’t wait any longer—the right time may be in the rearview before you know it. With a new administration in the White House, tax reform is on the agenda in Washington, and the proposed changes would have a major effect on many estates, especially for high-net-worth individuals. More >
Exemption Portability - What is it, and how does it work?
The term "portability" is used in many contexts, but in the estate planning context portability describes the way a surviving spouse can use the remainder of a deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount to further shield her or his estate from tax liability. Portability first came about in 2010 as a temporary concept in the Tax Relief, Unemployment Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010. It was set to expire on December 31, 2012, but Congress, in the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, made portability a permanent part of the estate and gift tax exclusion. The current unified exemption for estate and gift taxes is $5.43 million (for the year 2015), so portability allows for a potentially very large tax break for a surviving spouse's estate. More >
