Читать книгу 2012 Estate Planning - Martin Inc. Shenkman - Страница 30

The 2010 Act set the estate, gift, and GST tax exemption at $5 million per person (or $10 million per married couple), inflation adjusted starting in 2012; it’s now $5.12 million. An effective tax rate of 35 percent was set for all the federal transfer taxes: the estate tax applicable at death, the gift tax applicable to lifetime (inter-vivos) transfers, and the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax. These favorable 2010 Act changes, however, all expire (i.e., sunset) at the end of 2012 and, absent congressional action, the exemption will decline to $1 million (although the GST exemption will be higher as a result of it being inflation adjusted) and the unified rate will rise to 55 percent.

PLANNING NOTE: While there are a number of proposals, and many more predictions, the law right now is as provided above. The critical point to 2012 planning is that, absent a visit by Carnac the Great, we may not know what the 2013 laws will be until well after 2012 planning opportunities have disappeared. Remember, the 2010 estate tax rules were not known until mid-December 2010!