Taxpayers often direct their IRA accounts to be paid into trust for beneficiaries at their death. This is often done to accomplish the usual benefits of trusts, including limiting beneficiary access to funds, protection of trust assets from creditors, and third party management over trust assets. If accomplished through properly drafted trusts, the trusts can allow for the payouts to be stretched out over the lifetime of the trust beneficiaries. Such stretching of distributions also…

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Setting Every Up Community for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, which was incorporated into the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act. The SECURE Act makes significant changes to the tax rules applicable to qualified retirement plans and IRAs. Key changes include deferring of the commencement of required minimum distributions until age 72, and requiring payouts after the death of an account holder to be completed within 10 years…

For liability protection, the question regularly comes up who in the family should own the cars. Ask a number of lawyers and you are likely to get a number of different answers. Note that there are generally two (or more) people who can be liable when a negligently driven vehicle injures another person or another person’s property. The driver is going to be responsible for their own negligence. This is the primary liability, and is…

To view a PDF table and diagram of the current rates, click here. Interestingly, the mid-term rate has moved back up above the short-term rate. Thus, the yield curve inversion (a recession predictor) shows sign of ending.…

The IRS has announced for 2020: A. The basic estate and gift tax exclusion amount (and the GST exemption) will be $11,580,000; B. The gift tax annual exclusion will remain $15,000; and C. The gift tax annual exclusion for gifts to a non-U.S. citizen spouse will be $157,000. I have updated my historic table of exclusion amounts for the new year. You can download a copy here.…

In 2016, the IRS issued regulations under Section 385 that, among other things, imposed various documentary requirements that would need to be met before certain related party indebtedness would be respected as debt and not equity. These regulations caused much consternation regarding costs and burdens of compliance. The IRS postponed the effective date until 2019. However, under President Trump’s initiative to reduce regulatory burdens, these reporting requirements were targeted for review. In welcome news to…

Florida adjusts its interest rate on underpayments, late payments, and overpayments, twice a year. The Florida interest rate on underpayments and overpayments remains 9% for the period January 1, 2020 through June 30, 2020.…