Reflecting On the Future - Succession Planning and Constant Changes in Federal Tax Law

What will the future bring after the last year or so of frenetic estate and business succession planning? I don’t have any better crystal ball today than I had last year when I was advising clients to play “use it or lose it” with their gift and generation skipping tax credits. However one thing is for sure, estate and gift tax rates have increased to 40%. That means more liquidity will be required to transfer business interest to the next generation. After adding the State inheritance taxes most taxable estates will be taxed at 50% or more. A 50%+ transfer tax would lead me to believe that there will be no significant let up in estate planning.  We have already seen a spurt in activity from those who intended to do something yet did not get around to it and now feel as though they have been given a reprieve from the curse of procrastination by the continuation of the estate tax credits. On a related note, I would anticipate seeing a campaign by the IRS estate auditor to challenge discounting. There may have been some hasty valuations prepared last year, and I have no doubt that if after a few test audits they find a trend, the IRS will recognize low-hanging fruit and begin auditing 2012 gifts with vigor. To read the end of this article, click here.

Reflecting On the Present - Succession Planning and Constant Changes in Federal Tax Law

Here it is late January 2013, and I know I am not alone feeling both emotionally and physically tired. The holidays went by like a runaway Power Point presentation. My get-up-and-go has got-up-and-left. Clients that were calling every other day are not to be heard from. They don’t want to talk to me, and for a spell the feelings are mutual. With the last minute tax deal which affirmed all the estate tax, gift tax and generation skipping tax credits and exemptions that we were afraid of losing were here to stay for the moment, there is a bit of an empty feeling. There’s been some soul searching generating questions such as: To read the end of this article, click here.

Reflecting On the Past - Succession Planning and Constant Changes in Federal Tax Law

The last two years have been very exciting and challenging. As soon as the Republican leaders figured out that President Obama’s definition of finding compromise and achieving consensus meant everyone acknowledging that he was the only brain in the room and agreeing with his ideas, it was assumed that that the President Bush tax cuts were going bye-bye. Consequently, the estate and gift tax rates were going back to 55% and the estate, gift and generation skipping tax credits and exemption were going back to $1MM.  All the attorneys, accountants and technical gurus were forecasting a perfect storm for the supreme taxacrat—without burning any political capital he could just continue in an unproductive deadlock by being naturally condescending and arrogant; he could achieve a tax increase on small business who he defined as rich; and he could blame the deadlock and resulting tax increase on the Republicans. Because of this, starting in early 2011, the tax planning community has been working on the utilization of the estate, gift and generation skipping tax credits under the assumption that after December 31, 2012, they would be lost. An extraordinary amount of emotional energy has been spent convincing clients that the days of procrastination are over. Use-it-or-lose-it is had become a reality. The days of excuses were over. To read the end of this article, click here.