On October 14, 2016 Gov. Christie executed a new law that states New Jersey decedents who die during 2017 will not be subject to New Jersey estate tax unless their taxable estates are greater than $2,000,000. Thereafter, beginning with deaths occurring on January 1, 2018, the New Jersey estate tax is repealed. Those New Jersey
Modest estates: New tax planning considerations The landscape has changed for estate planning in the past several years since the gift and estate tax was set at 40% and the lifetime exemption was upped to $5,450,000 in 2016. Now many modest estates will have either no estate tax or a very nominal estate tax, therefore,
“Probate” is the process of identifying and gathering a decedent’s assets, paying taxes, claims and expenses, distributing assets to beneficiaries and the wrapping up of a decedent’s affairs in a court supervised setting. Probate provides a means for those interested to make any claims, valid or invalid, in a fair structured process. Properly followed, it
The IRS recently announced the inflation-adjusted items for 2016, including gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax amounts. The following adjustments should be considered in your estate and gift planning: • The gift tax annual exclusion for 2016 remains $14,000 (and is increased to $148,000 for gifts to a non-U.S. citizen spouse). Married couples who elect
Senate bill S2899 has been introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would establish the federal estate tax rate to be 40% on all estates worth $3,500,000 but less than $10,000,000, and 50% on all estates in excess of $10,000,000 but less than $50,000,000. Thereafter the estate tax rate would be 55% on estates in
Bequeathing a large amount of money to multiple generations of your family has long been a controversial issue; but this approach to wills and trusts is suddenly getting more popular. The 2010 Tax Relief Act made it possible to fund $5 million-plus trusts per person without incurring as big a tax bill as in the
While many people are postponing updating their estate planning documents until there is a little more certainty about the next estate tax law effective January 1st, 2013, a person should still continue to update his or her existing estate planning documents. Also, waiting for the Congress to determine how it wants to set the estate
In 2010, taxpayers and their advisers were presented with a real gift from Congress – an increase of the estate tax exclusion to $5 million and a corresponding increase to the lifetime gift exclusion from $1 million to $5 million. This window of opportunity came with a short shelf life, with both provisions set to
On May 26, 2001 the United State Congress passed a ten year tax cut bill that repeals the Federal Estate Tax beginning in 2010. President Bush signed this bill into law on June 7, 2001. This law represents the largest tax cut in the past two decades; but please bear in mind that the transfer
If you have residences in more than one state, it is important to determine in which state you wish to establish your legal domicile. Your choice of domicile carries with it various important consequences. For example, domicile often determines jurisdiction to (i) assess state income and death taxes, (ii) probate wills and administer estates, and