Читать книгу 2012 Estate Planning - Martin Inc. Shenkman - Страница 39

The following is a general background discussion of GST to establish the framework for the 2012 planning discussions that follow in several later chapters. While you might choose to skip the effort to understand GST planning, some sense of the tax and how planning for it commonly is approached will make some of the more dramatic planning recommendations for 2012 more understandable and, perhaps, even more palatable.

The GST tax can apply to a broad range of property transfers, including transfers of property in trust (e.g., a gift to a trust established for a grandchild), life estates (e.g., a child has the right to income from the property for life and on the child’s death a grandchild receives the property), remainder interests (e.g., a grandchild receives the property after the death of a child and the termination of the child’s life estate), and so forth. The real power, however, of GST planning is the allocation of the GST exemption to gifts made to perpetual, flexible trusts that benefit future generations in a manner that maximizes the leverage of assets transferred into the protective trust structure, and the duration for that trust.

For the GST tax to apply, a taxable event must occur. This requires a generation-skipping transfer. The simplest example is when you make a gift to a grandchild. In general, the tax is imposed whenever property passes to or for the benefit of a grandchild or more remote descendants, or to someone assigned to the generation of a grandchild or more remote descendants. It applies, in general, whenever property passes through the generation of children (e.g., a trust for a child which ends in favor of grandchildren) or around the generation of children (e.g., directly to a grandchild) if no estate or gift tax is imposed at the children’s generation. More technically, the GST tax applies when there is a transfer of property (or income from property) to a person who is, or is considered to be, a member of a generation at least two generations below that of the person making the gift. The term “person” in tax speak is broad and includes trusts as well—these people (individuals and trusts) are known as “skip persons” (explained in the next section).

Some basic definitions must be explained in order to understand the complicated GST tax. These include the three events that can cause the GST tax to apply. These events are a “direct skip,” a “taxable distribution,” and a “taxable termination.” These concepts all have applicability to 2012 planning.