Address the Possibility of Exposure to the Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax and Give the Fiduciary the Opportunity to Avoid the Tax by Creating a General Power of Appointment - 1 Clause (3 Pages)
With all of the uncertainty in the federal tax laws about the amount of the exclusion from the federal estate tax, the amount of the exclusion from the generation-skipping transfer tax, and the future tax rates to be imposed – as well as the uncertainties inherent in life as to who may survive the testator and what may be the value of the testator’s estate at the time of death – it is helpful to include some “what if” provisions in the Will to address these uncertainties.
CLAUSE 1: Allow for Discretionary Allocations of the GST Exemption; Allow for the Creation of a General Power of Appointment for Skip Persons
CLAUSE: Allow for Discretionary Allocations of the GST Exemption; Allow for the Creation of a General Power of Appointment for Skip Persons
With all of the uncertainty in the federal tax laws about the amount of the exclusion from the federal estate tax, the amount of the exclusion from the generation-skipping transfer tax, and the future tax rates to be imposed – as well as the uncertainties inherent in life as to who may survive the testator and what may be the value of the testator’s estate at the time of death – it is helpful to include some “what if” provisions in the Will to address these uncertainties. Accordingly, it is recommended that the Will include language giving the fiduciary broad discretion to allocate the generation-skipping tax exemption should this become a necessary issue in a testator’s estate. The tax law allows a fiduciary to divide interests in property passing to skip persons into trusts that are exempt from the generation-skipping tax and those that will be subject to the tax. The Will should address this possibility. The Will should also contain a reference to allowing the fiduciary to treat the testator who has created a QTIP Trust for a spouse with the remainder eventually passing to skip persons as the transferor of such property for purposes of the generation-skipping tax rules, a so-called “reverse QTIP election”...
Author:
Steven G. Siegel is president of The Siegel Group, a Morristown, New Jersey - based national consulting firm specializing in tax consulting, estate planning and advising family business owners and entrepreneurs. Mr. Siegel holds a BS from Georgetown University, a JD from Harvard Law School and an LLM in Taxation from New York University.
He is the author of several books, including: Planning for An Aging Population; Business Entities: Start to Finish; Taxation of Divorce and Separation; Income Taxation of Estates and Trusts, Preparing the Audit-Proof Federal Estate Tax Return, Putting It Together: Planning Estates for $5 million and Less, Family Business Succession Planning, Business Acquisitions: Representing Buyers and Sellers in the Sale of a Business; Dynasty Trusts; Planning with Intentionally-Defective Grantor Trusts; The Federal Gift Tax: A Comprehensive Analysis; Charitable Remainder Trusts, Grantor Trust Planning: QPRTs, GRATs and SCINs, The Estate Planning Course, The Retirement Planning Course, Retirement Distributions: Estate and Tax Planning Strategies; The Estate Administration Course, Tax Strategies for Closely-Held Businesses, and Tort Litigation Settlements: Tax and Financial Issues.
Mr. Siegel has lectured extensively throughout the United States on tax, business and estate planning topics on behalf of numerous organizations, including National Law Foundation, AICPA, CCH, National Tax Institute, National Society of Accountants, and many others. He has served as an adjunct professor of law at Seton Hall and Rutgers University law schools.
The Siegel Group provides consulting services to accountants, attorneys, financial planners and life insurance professionals to assist them with the tax, estate and business planning and compliance issues confronting their clients. Based in Morristown, New Jersey, the Group has provided services throughout the United States. The Siegel Group does not sell any products. It is an entirely fee-based organization.
