CALL NOW FOR A TRUST TUNE UP—(310)907-5715
THE LAWS HAVE CHANGED
NEW DEVELOPMENTS WITH THE TAX REFORM
ACT OF 2010
- CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTION ROLLOVERS EXTENDED
For all persons over 70 ½ who need to take a mandatory taxable distribution of their IRA they can roll it over to a charity and avoid income tax on the distribution. - ESTATE AND GIFT TAX REFORM
The estate tax exemption is now $5,000,000.00 for the next two years until 2012. Then the exemption will be increased for inflation. This exemption applies for Gift taxes and Generation Skipping Taxes as well. The amount for a couple will be $10,000,000.00. Expect a big transfer of wealth in the next two years for wealthy individuals. - ESTATE TAX PORTABILITY
“Portability”—a concept whose time has come. This means that a married couple can truly give $10,000,000.00 of assets to their heirs regardless of who dies first and without having to engage in complicated estate planning such as making up complicated trusts to shelter the estate tax exemption in the trust of the first spouse to die. The only catch is that the surviving spouse has to file an estate tax return electing to uses this portability feature of the law. This will be especially helpful to families that have a retirement account as a large part of their estate, because using putting such a fund in the old credit shelter trust causes many tax problems. - IN CALIFORNIA TRUSTS ARE STILL IMPORTANT
Even with the new increased exemption and “Portability” an “TUNED UP” trust is still critical in avoiding probate in California. In some cases trusts can be simplified and in other cases they should be modified to take full advantage of the new laws.