Tag Archive for Foreign Nationals

Estate Tax Planning for Cross-Border Families and Foreign Nationals

Multi-national families have numerous issues associated with Nonresident Alien Parents who are considering transferring their wealth to their U.S.-resident children. The Nonresident Alien Parents’ goal is to pass the assets to the children when the surviving parent dies, and ensure that successive wealth transfers to future generations are made without U.S. estate tax, or generation-skipping transfer tax while minimizing U.S. income tax on investment income.

Residence of a Trust

A trust will be considered domestic if:

(i) a U.S. court can exercise primary supervision over trust administration (the “Court Read More

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Foreign Nationals – Common US Tax Planning Technique With a Dynasty Trust

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Many non-US persons have children, grandchildren and succeeding generations who are US citizen or resident individuals. The foreign person often wishes to create a trust for, or implement some other form of estate plan that will benefit these US individuals, whether during the lifetime of the foreign person or upon his or her death. When US individuals are to be the beneficiaries of such planning, extreme care must be taken so as not to run afoul of the numerous US tax rules that can result in harsh taxation to the US beneficiary who receives distributions from a foreign (non-US or “non-domestic”) trust. The creation of a so-called “Dynasty Trust” may be of benefit in some cases and can assist in the saving of significant US tax dollars.

What is a Dynasty Trust? How Does it Work?

In the past, many US States had laws in place that prevented a trust from continuing its existence through multiple levels of generations. This law was known as the “Rule Against Perpetuities.” This Rule was designed to prevent rich families from tying up family assets in trusts that continued through many generations of heirs. The Rule Against Perpetuities has been changed in many States, and as a result, the so-called “Dynasty Trust” appeared. Read More

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