Estate Planning and Beyond Flashcards
How are Estates and Trusts Taxed Annually?
What are the minimum triggers that require them to file?
Both file form 1041
Both must file if income > $600, or if they have a non-resident beneficiary.
Estate or trust income must be reported even if you haven’t received it yet.
What are Grantor, Tainted, or Defective Trusts? Who is taxed on trust income with these trusts?
Trusts wherein the grantor retains an interest. In these cases, the grantor is taxed on income produced by the trust.
To whom is money used to pay premiums for LI in an ILIT taxed?
It is taxed to the grantor
What is a reversionary interest in a trust?
When the trust corpus goes back to the grantor after the trust term.
4 Characteristics of a Simple Trust:
- Can it accumulate its own income?
- Does it file a tax return? Why?
- Can it make charitable gifts?
- Can it distribute its corpus?
- Pays out all income
- Beneficiaries are taxed on income.
- Files a tax return to show where income went.
- Cannot make charitable gifts
- Cannot distribute its corpus
4 Characteristics of a Complex Trust
- What are their options for their income?
- Can they distribute to charities?
- Can they distribute corpus?
- Who pays taxes on their income?
- Can distribute or accumulate income.
- Can distribute to charities
- Can distribute corpus
- Pays its own taxes.
Revocable or Living Trusts:
- Who pays taxes on their income?
- Are transfers into them taxable?
- When do they become irrevocable?
- All income earned by a revocable trust is taxed to the grantor.
- Transfers into them are not taxed b/c they’re not completed gifts
- Become irrevocable at death
Three Irrevocable Trust Characteristics
- Can the grantor change them?
- Can they be a grantor trust?
- Can they be either simple or complex?
- Grantor cannot change them in any way.
- Can be a grantor trust or not.
- Can be a simple or complex trust
What’s the difference (usually) between cost basis and adjusted cost basis?
Cost basis = all purchase expenses.
Adj. cost basis = Cost basis - depreciation claimed.
What step up to FMV do STD spouses get in community property states?
100%
When did the US begin using MACRS?
What is required to make SL recovery an option?
What convention is used in the year of acquisition?
What convention is used if > 40% of property is put into service during the 4th quarter of the year?
- Used to recover costs in all business property put into use after 1986.
- SL recovery is an option within MACRS, but 1/2 year convention must be used.
- 1/2 year convention is used in the year of acquisition.
- Mid 1/4 convention is used if > 40% of property is put into service during the 4th quarter of the year.
What is 5 year property?
Cars, trucks and computers.
What is 7-year property?
Office furniture and fixtures
What are the depreciation terms for residential and commercial real estate?
27.5 years for residential.
39 years for commercial.
What is depreciation recapture? At what rate is it taxed?
Depreciation claimed is subtracted from basis to determine adjusted basis. When a property is sold for more than its adjusted basis, depreciation is recaptured up to the amount of the original basis.
For machines it’s recaptured as OI
For property it’s recaptured as OI for accelerated depreciation, 25% for SL depreciation?
What is Section 179 expensing? What are it’s limits? Can it be used to create a loss? How long can unused 179 expense be carried forward?
It’s essentially 100% depreciation in the first year.
Can’t be used to create a loss, but can be carried forward indefinitely.
If business income > 2.62M you get a dollar for dollar reduction in the 179 cap.
All earned income, even from other sources, can be weighted against 179 to maximize how much you can take.
What is the holding period on inherited property?
Always long-term. Like Laila’s new house.
How is rental real estate taxed at sale?
Original cost - adj. basis is taxed at 25%
FMV - original cost = LTCG.
If Accelerated depreciation taken, it’s taxed as OI.
How do you calculate personal casualty loss in a federally declared disaster ?
Hint: 4 steps
- Lesser of basis or FMV.
- Less insurance coverage.
- Less $100 floor.
- Less 10% of AGI.
What business entity do you want if you want liability protection and losses to deduct from your personal income tax liability?
S-corp.
How do you calculate how much an annuity will pay in total in a case?
Find the life expectancy of the person (usually in the profile in the first part of the case) and multiply by the payment amount.
Is worker’s comp included in income?
No.
Is depreciated business equipment a judicious gift from a financial standpoint?
Yes. There’s no more losses for you to take.
Are entertainment expenses deductible?
Is there such a thing as corporate AMT?
No and no.
What is the maximum charitable deduction you can claim in 1 year?
60% of AGI
What is the maximum charitable deduction you can claim in one year to public charities?
Private charities?
50% of AGI for public charities
30% of AGI for private charities
For donations of LTCG property how do you compute what donation you can claim? How do you remember this? What happens with any unused deduction?
You can claim either 30% of FMV, or 50% of basis.
You can remember this because FMV is 3 letters and basis is 5
Unused deduction can be carried forward for 5 years (so you get 6 total).
What happens if you die with unused charitable deduction?
Your estate can claim 1 year worth of deduction, but the rest is lost.
What are the 4 steps for solving charitable deduction problems?
- Compute 60% of AGI. This is the maximum deduction you can take.
- Calculate donations of LTCG assets to public charities. For these you can deduct basis up to 50% of AGI, or FMV up to 30% of AGI.
- Add STCG assets, inventory donations, works of art for unrelated use. Deduct basis, up to 50% of AGI.
4 Add donations to private charities up to 30% of AGI.
Why is selling a work of art and giving the $ to charity usually not a good idea?
Selling involves a commission and other costs.
If a question doesn’t say “in today’s dollars” should you adjust it for inflation?
Probably not.
Is there estate tax on a charitable gift of the remainder of an estate?
No.
How might you maximize a pension benefit if you have a younger spouse?
Take pure life instead of joint-and-survivor and use some of the excess to buy an LI policy with your spouse as beneficiary.
For SS, what is a fully insured worker? When are they entitled to retirement benefits? When are they entitled to disability benefits?
A fully insured worker has worked 40 quarters.
They are eligible for retirement benefits at 62.
They are eligible for disability if either
- They’ve been disabled for 12 months and they expect to be disabled for another 12 months.
- They have a disability expected to end in death, and have completed a 5-month waiting period.
When does the spouse of a retired or disabled worker get benefits?
Hint: 3 possible ways
If they are at least 62.
If they’re caring for a child under 16.
If they’re caring for a child 16 or over who was disabled before 22.
When does the surviving child of a deceased, disabled, or retired worker get benefits?
If they’re under 19 and in HS.
If they were disabled before 22.
What is the lump sum benefit of $255 and who gets it?
The spouse or dependent child who was living with a deceased worker. It was meant to pay funeral costs.
When does a divorced spouse get retirement benefits? What conditions must they meet?
At 62 if they were married for 10 years and has been divorced for 2 (and hasn’t remarried)
How do you calculate someone’s SS retirement benefit if their benefits are reduced because they started them before reaching FRA?
Start with their full retirement age (67)
Their benefit is reduced for each month they retire early.
The calculation is # of months early ÷ 180 = % of benefits reduced.
What happens to workers receiving SS who keep working?
- If they’ve reached FRA they get their full benefit.
- If they start benefits before FRA and keep working there are 2 calculations:
- If younger than FRA for all of 2021, benefits reduce $1 for every $2 earned above $18,960.
- If they reach FRA in 2021, benefits reduce $1 for every $3 above $50,520.
Deductions continue until FRA is reached.
What 3 things use BEGIN mode? Do mortgage payments?
College tuition payments, retirement benefits, family needs.
Mortgage payments are due at the end of the month; they use END mode.
What does a pour-over will do?
Moves all unaccounted for things into a testamentary trust.