Updated 2016 Transfer Tax Numbers!

The inflation adjustments for 2016 numbers are as follows:

1. Exclusion amount for gifts and estates of decedents dying in 2016- $5,450,000

2. Generation Skipping Transfer Tax exemption- $5,450,000

3. Annual exclusion for gift tax- $14,000

4. Annual exclusion for gifts to non citizen spouses- $148,000

5. Special use valuation reduction- $1,110,000

ADVICE: This is good news for most taxpayers. As the estate tax exemption continues to rise, the estate tax will have less effect on most taxpayers. Now is the time to consult with your advisers on “fixing” those complicated estate plans you may have created in the past. Also focus more on income tax basis planning.

New Word of the Week: Tenancy by the Entirety. This is a type of ownership which can only exist between a husband and wife. Each spouse owns the whole of the property and is based on the legal fiction that the husband and wife are one person. The ownership is based on five unities: time, title, interest, possession and marriage. In Florida a valid tenants by the entirety account is protected from a creditor of one spouse.

GENEROSITY IS A KEY TO HAPPINESS …REACH OUT AND HELP SOMEONE TODAY!