Estate Tax
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How to Reduce Estate Taxes and Cut the IRS Out of Your Estate Plan
There are four basic strategies for reducing estate taxes: • Reducing assets from the estate • Removing future appreciation from the estate • Increasing deductions, and • Buying life insurance. Within those four estate planning strategies are many options. Not all will be appropriate for you. But below I discuss your estate tax reduction options […]
How to Use Life Insurance Under the New Estate Tax Laws Part II
In last week’s edition of Retirement Watch Weekly, we re-examined some factors and tools of estate planning that were altered by the new estate tax regime. Today, we’ll complete the list… […]
How to Use Life Insurance Under the New Estate Tax Laws
Because of the still relatively new estate tax regime, some factors and tools of estate planning need to be looked at differently than before. Here’s the first area we’ll review… Life insurance. Traditionally the main reason to buy permanent life insurance was to help pay for estate taxes. The number of people with that need […]
How Your Estate Plan Should Be Changed Because of the Latest Tax Law
It is time to revisit your family’s legacy plan. For many people, it’s well past the time to revise their plans. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 made only a few direct changes in the estate and gift tax, but the changes have significant consequences. This law was really one of the more […]
Avoid the Gift Tax Return Trap
You might need to file a gift tax return,even if you won’t owe gift or estate taxes.The IRS can impose penalties for not filing a gift tax return, even when no tax was due. The IRS began clamping down on unfiled gift tax returns a few years ago, because many people don’t know the gift […]
New Estate Exemption Amount Finalized for 2018
The exact amount of the estate and gift tax exemption for 2018 was in limbo until just recently. You know that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the individual estate and gift tax exemption for 2018. Not everyone realized that the method for inflation indexing the amount also was changed in the law, and […]
Proving Your Residence: More Important after Estate Tax Reform
Some states will go to extraordinary lengths to keep from losing you as a legal resident. Unfortunately, that’s not a good thing. They aren’t going to heap inducements and incentives on you as they do to entice companies to stay. Instead, sometime after you think you’ve moved, they’ll argue that you or your estate still […]
It’s Dangerous Not to Review Your Estate Plan after Tax Reform
Tax reform affects estate plans more than most people realize. In the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the only direct change in estate and gift taxes was the doubling of the lifetime exemption amount. Though the IRS has yet to issue the official inflation-indexed levels for 2018, the individual lifetime exemption could be as high […]
