Archive for Estate – Tax
2011/2012 Federal Estate, Gift and Generation Skipping Transfer Tax Update
December 2010 turned out to be an exciting month for estate and gift tax laws. On December 17, 2010, President Obama signed the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the “Act”). The Act sets forth an exemption amount of $5,000,000 for federal gift, estate and generation skipping transfer taxes for [...]
$103,000 Penalty Abatement
H&A has again successfully helped obtain abatement of an IRS penalty. In this case, the estate failed to file a return due to accountant error. The CPA who caught the mistake filed an estate tax return for the client within a reasonable time after identification of the error. Despite there being obvious reasonable cause for [...]
Generation Skipping Transfer Tax Notice for 2010
Many of our clients gift life insurance premiums to their life insurance trusts on an annual basis. Prior to passage of the 2010 Tax Relief Act, there was uncertainty and risk around these gifts with regard to allocation of generation skipping transfer tax exemption. As a result, our advice to clients was to treat the [...]
Year End Tax Update
There is a lot of uncertainty this year over what’s happening with taxes. There are still steps you can take, however, to minimize your 2010 tax liability. Please remember that most tax-saving provisions require planning and execution before year-end. We are ready to help you plan efficiently and effectively. Federal Residential Energy Property Credit Energy [...]
H&A obtains Release of Wrongful Levy by IRS
In this case, taxpayers had a 1.5 million dollar lien against them individually for past due personal income taxes and penalties. Taxpayers owned a limited liability company which ran an operating business. The IRS attempted to place a levy on the limited liability company’s bank account to satisfy the lien. The levy would have catastrophic [...]
H&A Wins Self Dealing Penalty Abatement
The IRS confronted our client with an assessment of over $700,000 in self dealing transaction penalties under Internal Revenue Code Section 4941 for its dealings with a private foundation. H&A obtained a full abatement of the assessed penalties through hard work, creative thinking, and attention to detail. This was a collaborative effort by our tax [...]
Governor signs Senate Bill 461
Governor Perdue signed Senate Bill 461 on May 28, 2010, making the provisions thereof retroactive to January 1, 2010. As discussed, the law allows married Georgia residents to utilize the entire step up in basis provided under the current estate tax laws without modification to current documents. If you have any questions about this law [...]
Georgia Senate Bill 461 and Funding of the Marital Trusts
As a previous article stated, the Federal Estate Tax purported repeal and the new carryover basis rules could cause problems for older Wills of married persons where the Will is drafted to maximize the Federal Estate Tax Exclusion. The Georgia legislature is in the process of passing a bill that would all the language of [...]
Federal Estate Tax Laws that may affect your Will
As a result of the 2001 tax legislation, the Federal Estate Tax has purportedly been repealed for 2010. While Congress is still debating the issue, as it stands now if a person were to die in 2010 there might be no federal estate tax on their estate. Additionally, step up in basis of assets to [...]
Federal Estate Tax Laws that may affect your Will in a Second Marriage
As a result of the 2001 tax legislation, the Federal Estate Tax has been repealed for 2010. While Congress is still debating the issue, as it stands now if a person were to die in 2010 there might be no federal estate tax on their estate. There could be an issue with providing assets for [...]