Personal Financial Focus - Client Question: With the most recent changes to the federal estate tax, do I need to worry about “estate taxes”?
June 15, 2017
The federal estate tax is a tax on property (cash, real estate, stock, or other assets) transferred from deceased persons to their heirs. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 changed the rate structure for estates, reunified the estate tax credit with the federal gift tax credit and provided for the portability of the credit (exemption equivalent) between spouses. As a result, only higher value estates will pay the tax because it is levied only on the portion of an estate’s value that exceeds — $5.49 million per person or $10.98 million per married couple in 2017. Note that the estate tax exemption is indexed for inflation in future years.
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