Estate Planning
Basic Tax Reduction Strategies
- Make Full use of the marital deduction.
- Maximize the lifetime estate and gift tax credit
- Make lifetime gifts. You can give any person up to $15,000 worth of property in 2018 without incurring gift taxes, and you can make these annual gifts to as many people as you want
- Make large lifetime gifts. The full $10 million lifetime estate and gift tax credit can be used against either estate taxes or gift taxes or a combination of the two.
- Use a credit shelter trust. This trust accomplishes several goals. It ensures that you take full advantage of the lifetime exemption equivalent if you haven't done so already.
- Use irrevocable trusts.
- Use life insurance to pay taxes or provide an inheritance.
- Give to charity and heirs
- Family limited partnerships for businesses. Many business owners have found that family limited partnerships let them reduce gift and estate taxes, keep the business intact, and still retain control of the business during their lifetimes.
When seeking assistance from an attorney, make sure you that attorney is an Estate Planning Attorney and not a general practice attorney.
Dan
