Category: Estate Planning
RMD Proposed Regulations – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The proposed regulations consist of 64 pages printed in the Federal Register and are subject to a comment period which ended on May 25, 2022. Once the IRS considers the comments it will move towards finalization and adoption after which they will become effective. The IRS has received 119 comments…
Company Owned Life Insurance and Buy-Sell Agreements
In Connelly v. U.S., USDC ED MO, Case No. 4:19-c-01410, September 21, 2021, the District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri held that company-owned life insurance on the life of a deceased shareholder that was used to redeem the deceased shareholder’s shares increased the fair market value of the…
When Gifting to Save Estate Taxes, it is Essential to Consider Loss of Step-Up in Basis
Since the House Ways and Means committee proposed reducing the estate and gift tax exemption from $11,700,000 to approximately $6,000,000 (as adjusted for inflation) effective January 1, 2022, there has been a rush by many wealthy individuals to make gifts by utilizing the $11,700,000 exemption while it is still available…
Income Tax Planning with Individual Retirement Accounts
We are occasionally faced with a situation where an IRA is designated to an individual that has predeceased the IRA owner with no contingent designated beneficiary named. In a situation where no designated beneficiary is named, the custodian agreement will control beneficiary designation and many times the IRA ends up…
Could dramatic estate tax changes be looming?
As was reported in our newsletter dated September 16, 2021, House Ways and Means Democrats Proposed Changes (link), the Ways and Means Committee of the United States House of Representatives (the principal tax writing committee) recently proposed substantial tax changes. Several of the provisions in the bill could have a…