Tag Archive for Estate Planning Tax

The Transfer Tax That Skips Generations: Otherwise Known As The GSTT!

For those of us navigating the treacherous seas of estate planning, we have to deal with the monstrous GSTT aka Generation Skipping Transfer Tax at some point or the other. Swimming through all the complications, we can many a time whittle it all down to a simple set of circumstances to watch for when your clients would be subject to GSTT. But before we can do that, we need to know the following:

What is GSTT?: If some or all of your estate bypasses your children and goes directly to a grandchild, there is another tax on your estate called the generation skipping transfer tax.

Although it wouldn’t serve to pay this tax intentionally, in some circumstances, this could be unintentional. If the inheritance is in a trust, the heir dies after the client but before Read More

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New Jersey Estate & Inheritance Tax: Reducing the Size of the Estate Through Gifting

New Jersey is one of only a few states that impose both an inheritance tax and a state estate tax. The inheritance tax applies when someone who lived in New Jersey, or owned property there, leaves property to someone who is not a close relative. The tax rate depends on how closely the inheritors and deceased person were related.

(1) How are inheritors classified?

The transfer inheritance tax is imposed, at graduated rates, on property having a total value of $00 or more that passes from a decedent to a beneficiary. New Jersey classifies inheritors into different groups, based on their family relationship to the deceased person. Read More

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New Jersey Estate Tax: The Uninvited Guest

New Jersey collects both an inheritance tax and its own estate tax, separate from the federal estate tax. Under current law, the estate of every New Jersey resident decedent dying after December 31, 2001 shall be taxed as if the death occurred under the federal laws in effect on December 31, 2001. Because the applicable federal exclusion amount was $675,000 in 2001, a New Jersey estate tax will be due for estates in excess of $675,000 passing to someone other than a surviving spouse — even though the current federal exclusion amount is significantly greater ($5.34 million for deaths in 2014).

While it might seem unfair that the New Jersey estate tax is calculated as if the applicable federal exclusion amount is $675,000 rather than the actual amount in effect at the time of Read More

Written by | Posted in Estate Planning Tax • North America