Estate Taxes
An Estate Tax Closing letter? Soon It May Cost You…
The Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("Notice") which proposes a new user fee to receive IRS Letter 627 - the Estate Tax Closing Letter (the "Letter"). A Letter is necessary to not only clear title for real estate, to close a...
Is it possible to minimize the impact of estate taxes?
When planning your estate, you probably have questions about how best to provide for your family. Can you limit the time and costs of the probate process? How can you limit the impact that taxes have on your estate? Florida, unlike many other states, does not charge...
Did You Miss The Portability Election? Relief Is Provided
The estate tax exclusion amount is now “portable” between husband and wife and until recently, no explicit guidance was available to determine when and how to successfully file a late return to elect such portability. In the recent Revenue Procedure 2014-18 the IRS...
Annuity Contracts May Allow The Beneficiary To Avoid Writs Of Garnishment
The Fifth District Court of Appeal of Florida recently held that beneficiaries of annuity contracts are exempt from garnishment pursuant to Florida Statute §222.14.In Connor v. Seaside Nat’l Bank, 2014 WL 1255340, a settlement in a dissolution of marriage distributed...
One More Reason To Notice Those Pesky Creditors!
In Jones v. Golden, (No. SC13-2536), the Florida Supreme Court settled the circuit court split regarding when a reasonably ascertainable creditor is barred if the creditor was never served a Notice to Creditors. Harry Jones’s estate was opened in 2007 and a Notice to...
WHEW! Relief For Co-Executors Whose Attorney Did Not Elect Alternate Valuation…
A Form 706 is required for a taxable estate or for an estate electing portability. Generally, assets are valued as of the date of death to determine an estate tax. The Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) grants a relief provision if, for example, the stock market...
Act Soon…Discounted Gifts Will Become Harder…
Individuals and their attorneys are very creative when planning to reduce estate taxes. One technique is to transfer an interest in a family owned family limited partnership (“FPL”), at a discounted value, to a family member while keeping the entity in the family....
Voiding of QTIP Election May Save Gift Taxes…
Instead of an outright distribution to a surviving spouse, estate planners often advise that assets be distributed to a qualified terminal interest property (“QTIP”) trust for the benefit of the surviving spouse. This planning occurs often in a second or third...
US Supreme Court Strikes Defense of Marriage Act… Now What?
On June 26, 2013, in United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. ___ (2013), the Supreme Court of the US upheld the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (the “Appeals Court”) decision in Windsor v. US, which upheld a challenge to Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act...
Relief for Late Filed Portabilty Elections!
The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has offered needed relief for portability elections. Portability, discussed in a prior blog, can save a surviving spouse’s beneficiaries over $2 million (in 2017) in estate taxes! However, to utilize such savings, the surviving...