Once Removed Episode 19: The Step-Transaction Doctrine and the Case of Smaldino
Once Removed Episode 18: The Reciprocal Trust Doctrine
Once Removed Episode 16: Gift and Estate Tax, Inflation Adjustments for 2024
Once Removed Episode 17: Annual Gifting to Individuals: Options, Opportunities and Pitfalls
To Give or Not to Give: Considerations for Year-End Gifting
For individual clients, the Legislation provides estate and tax planning opportunities, including through the increase in the federal gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemptions....more
President Trump’s July 4th signing of the Opportunity, Balance, and Better Budget Act sets an increased $15 million federal estate and gift tax exclusion and generation-skipping transfer tax exemption per individual,...more
On May 22, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed President Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill. The bill now awaits approval by the Senate. One of the various goals of the bill is to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s...more
As lawmakers advance toward the critical 2025 tax cliff, a key—and increasingly contentious—policy question is coming into sharper focus: What should Congress assume about the future when it scores the cost of extending the...more
Across all industries, private companies, family offices, and their owners and management teams face rapidly evolving challenges, opportunities, and risks in the dynamic environment that is 2025. Here are 11 issues that...more
The Gift and Estate Tax Exclusion is currently scheduled to be reduced by approximately 50% in about 13 months. Without action from Congress, on January 1, 2026, the Exclusion will go from almost $14 million to about $7...more
This year was busy for trusts and estates practitioners. With 2025 marking the final year of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), many of its implications for federal corporate and individual income tax, gift, estate and...more
In 2017, the federal gift and estate tax exemption was $5.49 million. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 doubled the gift and estate tax exemption amount to $11.18 million in 2018, and that amount has been adjusted for...more
With the looming elections, tax planners have taken time to consider what the future of Estate and Gift Tax planning might be under the new Congress. Every new Congress considers changes to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986,...more
At the end of 2025, the federal estate and gift tax exemption will dramatically decrease unless Congress affirmatively passes a law saying otherwise. This event is the “sunsetting” of a 2018 federal tax law and is leading...more
As we will see shortly, it is often “better to give than to receive,” though this statement begs the obvious question of whether it is better to do so during one’s lifetime or upon one’s death. Many well-to-do individuals...more
It is important to update your trust and estate plan regularly to protect your interests and meet the changing requirements of your future while integrating changes in law and best practices to provide for every potential...more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) enacted significant changes in the federal estate and gift tax laws commencing in 2018. One of the most notable changes was that the TCJA doubled the federal lifetime gift tax...more
Understanding the nuances of the Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.) is crucial for effective estate planning and tax strategy. For example, estate planners must be familiar with the tax basis adjustment provisions in 26 U.S.C. §...more
The American housing market is grappling with escalating interest rates and limited inventory, pricing many Americans out of home ownership. Massachusetts’s senior Senator Elizabeth Warren seeks to address this issue in the...more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 provided major changes to the Internal Revenue Code, specifically doubling the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption (collectively, the exemption) from...more
In a significant legislative shift, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 doubled the exemption amounts for estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes (collectively known as “Death Taxes”). As of 2024, the federal...more
The number of taxpayers seeking the benefits of Qualified Small Business Stock (“QSBS”) has picked up steam in recent years, particularly since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) lowered the federal corporate tax rates to...more
Current tax laws provide historically high exclusion amounts for the federal estate and generation skipping transfer tax. These exclusion amounts, however, are slated to sunset by roughly 50% at the end of 2025. ...more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) significantly increased the lifetime estate and gift tax exemption from $5.6 million to $11.18 million for individuals, with adjustments for inflation starting in 2018. For 2023, the...more
Estate planning is a lot like putting together a puzzle. The client provides you with their box lid showing what they want the ultimate result of their plan to look like. Then, estate planners are tasked to identify and...more
From time to time, we provide updates in the estate planning area. While the November 2022 federal elections resulted in a divided Congress that dampens the likelihood of major federal tax legislation, we thought this would...more
Actor Will Rogers is widely credited with stating that “the only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” While most taxpayers fear tax laws changing for the worse, estate...more
During 2022, COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, global inflation, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the uncertainty about the Build Back Better Act (BBBA), the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), and the Inflation Reduction Act...more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 increased the federal estate and gift tax exclusion amount (sometimes called the “basic exclusion amount” or “BEA”) from $5 million to $10 million. (Those numbers are adjusted for...more