Take-Away: What follows is a brief legislative update from Nathan Piwowarski, who is the chair of ‘Special Projects Committee’ for the Michigan Probate and Estate Planning Council. This is a short ‘follow up’ to previous reports on legislation being considered by our representatives and senators in Lansing. Delaware Tax Trap ‘Fix’: Testimony on this Bill […]

Take-Away: For those individuals who wish to make a large lifetime gift in order to consume their temporary large federal gift tax exemption, but who are reluctant to actually give up control of the gifted assets, they might consider the gift of a legally enforceable promissory note. Thanks: A special note of thanks goes to […]

Take-Away: Much has been written about the importance of taking advantage of the current $11.58 million dollar federal transfer tax exemption, with the focus on the ‘use it or lose it’ principle for lifetime gifts. However, there are, with any estate planning strategy, some potential negative consequences associated with making a large lifetime gift that […]

Take-Away: The IRS’s life expectancy Tables used to establish an individual’s required minimum distributions (RMDs) were scheduled to be updated and become effective on January 1, 2021. Those changes just got delayed one year. Those updated Tables, reflecting longer life expectancies, would have produced smaller RMDs. Now, those smaller RMDs of taxable income are delayed […]

Take-Away: With a census comes new actuarial studies. The census data derived from the 2010 census will result in the issuance of updated decennial life tables that show a much longer life expectancy that will be used in valuations and with several estate planning strategies. The unanswered question is when will the new life expectancy […]

Take-Away: If the donor’s gift to a donor advised fund (DAF) is subject to too much control over the contribution to that DAF, it may cease to be tax exempt under the Tax Code, and the donor’s gift to the DAF may be treated as a gift to a private foundation. That ‘worst-case-scenario’ would limit […]

Take-Away: An important reminder is that for 2020 only, a cash gift of $300 to charity may be deducted even if the donor claims the standard deduction on their 1040 income tax return. Background: The CARES Act, to assist ailing charities, created a one-year exception from normal income tax rules which permits a cash gift […]

Take-Away: There continues to be uncertainty whether there will be significant changes to the tax laws with the election of Vice President Biden, and the outcome of the election of the two Georgia senators. With that uncertainty comes the need to plan estates with some degree of flexibility to respond to future tax law changes […]

Take-Away: The IRS just published Revenue Ruling 2020-27 that provides that if an individual or business received a PPP loan under the CARES Act to be used to pay covered business expenses, those expenses cannot be deducted on the loan recipient’s income tax return this year if the forgiveness of that PPP loan is reasonably […]

Take-Away: A family that is considering the acquisition of real property might consider the use of a Split Purchase Annuity Trust [SPLAT] to take title, as an alternative to a qualified personal residence trust (QPRT) or a grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT.) Background: A donor is treated for gift tax purposes as transferring the entire […]