Читать книгу 2012 Estate Planning - Martin Inc. Shenkman - Страница 36

Grantor trusts, in very simple terms, are trusts that include certain provisions (or are administered in certain ways) to allow the income to be taxed to the grantor (typically, but not always, the person who established and funded the trust). Because of the disconnect between the gift/estate tax rules and the income tax rules, it is possible to walk the tightrope between the two tax worlds such that the grantor pays tax on the income and gains earned by a trust that is excluded from his or her estate. One advantage of grantor trust status is known as tax burn in that your estate is “burned,” or reduced, by the ongoing income tax liability caused by the attribution of the trust’s income to you as the grantor, and not to the trust or its beneficiaries, Moreover, your payment of income tax on income and gains retained inside an irrevocable trust is not deemed to be an additional gift by you to the trust. Thus, grantor trust status can shift the value of the income tax savings over many years to the irrevocable trust and provide in aggregate a significant wealth shift. President Obama’s 2012 Greenbook has proposed eliminating this benefit by ending the dichotomy between income and gift taxation of grantor trusts. It proposes to do this by making transfers to all grantor trusts incomplete gifts for gift and estate tax purposes. This would mean that all of the growth of the assets inside the trust free of income tax, as well as the trust’s underlying assets, would be includible in your estate and subject to estate tax at your death.

In spite of the incredible benefits grantor trust status affords under current law, many estate planners are using irrevocable non-grantor trusts as the receptacles for 2012 gifts. Other estate planners continue to emphasize aggressive audit-attracting valuation discounts while ignoring the benefits of tax burn. Even if you are reluctant to make any meaningful gifts in 2012, you might consider the “Standby BDIT” technique. The use and application of grantor trust status in these as well as other ways is discussed in Chapter 5.

PLANNING NOTE: In some cases, use of grantor trust status can increase income tax. First, you as the grantor might be in a higher federal income tax bracket than the trust or its beneficiaries. Second, you might be subject to a state (and perhaps local) income tax that the trust, if not a grantor trust, would not. It is appropriate to consider these factors in determining if the benefits of grantor trust status is greater than the detriments.