Today, I was reading a trust written in the late 1990’s. In it, the Grantor made a gift to her grandchildren that was to be equal to the Generation Skipping Transfer (GST) tax exemption. This is the amount of money that a person can give to someone, like a grandchild, who is more…
As of 2013, the annual gift tax exclusion amount is $14,000. That means that you can give up to $14,000 per year to any one person without having to report that gift on a gift tax return by April of the year following the gift. But that gift has to be completed–if you write someone a…
As I write this on Sunday, December 30, 2012, Congress has not yet made a deal to avoid the ‘fiscal cliff’ and the estate and gift taxes look certain to revert to their 2001 levels, at least until Congress and the President do make a deal. For those of you considering a very last…
In these waning days of 2012, when so many of our clients are working to give assets to their children or grandchildren to take advantage of the $ 5.12 million federal estate tax exclusion, I wanted to take a moment to warn against the accidental gift–something I’ve seen a lot of…
Somehow, it’s October tomorrow and that means that 2012 is drawing to its end. If you have been thinking that this would be a good year to make a gift to your children, you’d better act soon, not just because the holidays will soon be upon us, but because making a gift…
