Читать книгу 2012 Estate Planning - Martin Inc. Shenkman - Страница 12

While you may be aware of the potential federal estate tax savings of gifts, it bears repeating given the potential significance. If you make a gift of $5.12 million in 2012 and die in 2013, and the exemption in fact drops to $1 million, having made the gift will have removed $4.12 million from your taxable estate, along with any income tax paid on trust income that is reported on your income tax return as a result of grantor trust status, plus any post-gift appreciation in the value of the gifted assets. The tax savings can be tremendous.

While there has been some talk of a tax concept called “clawback” (relates to the “recapture” at your death of a portion of the exemption used in 2012) that could unwind some of the 2012 tax planning benefit, few tax commentators believe the risk is real and, even if it is, in most cases it won’t eliminate all 2012 planning benefits. The issue of clawback is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 6.

While you might be concerned about the cost of the 2012 planning, the transfer tax savings alone, if any of several potential adverse scenarios do in fact occur, could easily exceed several millions of dollars, and, for ultra-high net worth taxpayers, it could be in the tens or even hundreds of millions. Even factoring in uncertainty and costs associated with planning, for a substantial number of taxpayers, 2012 planning should have a worthwhile cost to potential benefit payoff ratio.