Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog

Planning: 2022 Planning Guide

Below is information about a 2022 planning guide put together by the Advanced Planning Group. 

Indeed, the bulk of 2021 was spent under the specter of seemingly inevitable changes: in May of 2021, the Administration released its wish list of tax proposals, then the House released a draft bill in September that proposed serious changes—some even retroactive—to income tax, capital gains, and corporate tax rates, as well as wide-ranging changes to the estate and gift tax regime, retirement planning, and international corporate taxation. Yet, despite the House passing legislation in November to make significant tax changes, we are now into 2022 without any changes to the tax landscape passed into law, other than some moderate inflation adjustments. This doesn’t mean that tax changes are not still possible sometime this year.

 

The purpose of this guide is to summarize some key aspects of tax laws affecting ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals and families and is organized into three sections:

 

– Income tax planning

– Retirement planning, and

– Estate planning.

 

The first of these sections deals primarily with income tax planning and lists updated figures for applicable rates and brackets, as well as a discussion of key concepts in income tax planning. The second section discusses retirement planning, including an outline of the tax rules for IRAs, Roth IRAs, and required minimum distribution rules, before concluding with a discussion of Social Security and Medicare benefits.

 

Finally, the section on estate planning outlines key concepts and changes to the gift and estate taxes in 2022.

See Planning: 2022 Planning Guide, UBS (2022). 

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.

Client Quick-Hit Alert -- New Year, New Estate & Gift Tax Exemptions

New year = new Estate & Gift Tax exemptions and new estate planning opportunities. For example: 

 

• The federal gift & estate tax exemption has increased from $11.7 million in 2021 to $12.06 million in 2022.
• The New York State estate tax exemption has increased from $5.93 million in 2021 to $6.11 million in 2022.
• The Connecticut state gift & estate tax exemption has increased from $7.1 million in 2021 to $9.1 million in 2022.

As of now, the next big shift in the federal estate & gift tax exemption will be at the end of 2025. At that point, the previously enacted tax cuts are scheduled to expire, resetting the federal gift & estate tax exemption of approximately $5.5 million. 

However, proposed tax laws could decrease the exemption to a lower amount before the scheduled expiration date. 

These new increased exemptions provide tremendous opportunities through the use of effective and efficient estate planning gift strategies such as:

• Dynasty Trusts, which provide generations of protection from creditors' claims, divorce claims, and future federal estate taxes and state estate taxes
• SLATs (Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts), which protect assets from future estate taxes while retaining those assets for use in your generation before such assets pass to children and grandchildren
• GRATs (Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts), which allow gift tax free transfers of assets to the next generation
• ILITs (Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts), which protect life insurance proceeds from federal estate taxes and state estate taxes
• CLATs (Charitable Lead Annuity Trusts), which provide for both a charitable income tax deduction and a gift tax efficient transfer of assets to the next generation.

See Client Quick-Hit Alert -- New Year, New Estate & Gift Tax Exemptions, Dentons, January 21, 2022. 

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.

CLE: Estate Planning With Specialty Assets: Carried Interest, SPACS, and QOZ Funds

On Thursday, January 20, 2022 at from 12:00–1:30 PM Eastern, The American Law Institute (ALI) and The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) are cosponsoring a CLE entitled, Estate Planning With Specialty Assets: Carried Interest, SPACS, and QOZ Funds. 

Below is more information on the CLE: 

Why You Should Attend

Wealth transfer structures can be complicated and have many moving parts. In recent years, new investment opportunities have emerged with the promise and potential for explosive growth and significant tax benefits. Such specialty assets, including interests in special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), qualified opportunity zone (QOZ) funds, and private investment funds, are increasingly on clients’ radars as good vehicles for wealth transfer. While these assets can provide unique opportunities for leverage, they also come with nuanced pitfalls and risks within the realms of estate, gift, and income taxation. Join us for this 90 minute webcast to learn how seemingly small variations in different structures can result in quite different solutions. Gain a better understanding of the facts and circumstances of the various options and learn ways to create customized plan structures for each of your clients. 

What You Will Learn

The faculty, all Fellows of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and highly-experienced estate and tax planning practitioners, will take a deep dive into the lightly chartered waters of estate planning with specialty assets. They will particularly focus on: 

Carried interests in private investment funds

Various categories of interests in SPACs

Interests in QOZ funds

Preferred partnership structures

 Questions submitted during the program will be answered live by the faculty. All registrants will receive a set of downloadable course materials to accompany the program. 

Who Should Attend

Estate planners and other related professionals, particularly those with wealthy clients, will benefit from this CLE on estate planning with specialty assets offered by ALI CLE and ACTEC. 

Register two or more and SAVE! Register as a group for this program and save up to 35% (click here for more details). Click "Register as a Group" to register at these savings. (Offer valid on new registrations in the same delivery format only; discounts may not be combined.)

 

Annual exclusion to rise to $16,000 in 2022

Due to surging inflation, the IRS announced that the annual exclusion for 2022 will be $16,000, up from the current $15,000.

See Andrew Keshner, IRS releases new standard deductions and tax brackets as inflation soars, MarketWatch (Nov. 10, 2021).

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Florida Probate Attorney) for being the first person to bring this development to my attention.

TAX PROPOSALS IN THE NEW “BUILD BACK BETTER” FRAMEWORK

"The White House released a new framework for the build back better plan, followed by a preliminary draft of the Bill from the house rules committee." 

Included in the proposal is a spending and tax plan. The specifics of the plan are complicated and involve "rapidly evolving, Congressional dynamics." 

The House Rules Committee text did not include provisions for tax changes like lowering of gift and estate tax exemption amounts; limitations on grantor trusts; increased corporate, income and capital gain tax rates; and provisions related to IRAs and Roth IRAs. Also notably left out was the "Billionaire Income Tax." 

Draft provisions that were included were: 

• A 15% minimum tax on corporations with more than $1 billion in profits, 1% surcharge on corporate stock buybacks for public companies, and 15% global minimum tax
• An income surtax applying a 5% percent rate on modified adjusted gross income (AGI) over $10 million, and an additional 3% on modified AGI above $25 million. The income surtax thresholds are lower for trusts, applying a 5% surtax on modified AGI over $200,000, and an additional 3% surtax on modified AGI over $500,000
• An expansion of the 3.8% net investment income (NII) tax to business profits for material participants making over $400,000, joint filers over $500,000 and all trust and estates (regardless of income levels)
• Limitation of the qualified small business stock exclusion to 50% for most sales of QSBS after September 13, 2021
• Limitations on excess business losses of noncorporate taxpayers, including a no-carryover of disallowed losses

See TAX PROPOSALS IN THE NEW “BUILD BACK BETTER” FRAMEWORK, Wealth: Northern Trust, October 28, 2021. 

Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.

Article: Incentivizing Wills Through Tax

Margaret Ryznar recently published an article entitled, Incentivizing Wills Through Tax, Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law ejournal (2021). Provided below is the abstract to the Article.

There have been recent calls to loosen will formalities in order to allow more people to execute wills, the importance of which has been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The reduction of necessary will formalities can be successful in expanding the use of wills, as can potential tax incentives for creation of wills, such as a tax credit. However, there are numerous advantages to using tax to initiate change, as considered in this Article.

Article: Closing Gaps in the Estate and Gift Tax Base

Daniel J. Hemel and Robert Lord recently published an article entitled, Closing Gaps in the Estate and Gift Tax Base, Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law ejournal (2021). Provided below is the abstract to the Article:

Three transfer tax minimization mechanisms—zeroed-out grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), and family-controlled entities with steep valuation discounts—significantly shrink the federal estate and gift tax base. This white paper explains how Congress can close all three loopholes. We estimate that these actions—along with complementary base-protecting and base-expanding proposals—would raise more than $65 billion over the fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2031 window (and possibly much more than $65 billion). They also would enhance the progressivity of the federal tax system and bolster the long-term revenue-raising capacity of the estate and gift taxes.

To summarize key conclusions:

— Congress should repeal section 2702(b)(1), the provision that enables high-net-worth individuals to achieve extraordinary transfer tax savings via GRATs;

— Congress should harmonize the income tax and transfer tax treatment of IDGTs,
preferably by treating these trusts as nongrantor trusts for income tax purposes;

— Congress should limit lack-of-marketability discounts and eliminate lack-of-control discounts with respect to transfers of interests in family-controlled entities; and

— Congress should supplement these three reforms with additional base-protecting and base-broadening measures: shifting to a tax-inclusive base for gift taxes; limiting the gift tax annual exclusion for transfers in trust; and expanding the requirement of consistency in value for transfer and income tax purposes.

All of these steps remain relevant—and in some respects, even more urgent—if Congress enacts the Biden-Harris administration’s capital income tax reform proposal, which would limit the tax-free step-up in basis at death to the first $1 million of unrealized gains ($2 million per couple). Unless Congress secures the estate and gift tax base, high-net-worth taxpayers will respond to stepped-up basis reform by exploiting transfer-tax loopholes even more aggressively. For this reason, estate and gift tax loophole closers and stepped-up basis reform should be considered complements, not substitutes.

To get the wealthy to pay more tax, first we need to work out why they avoid it

You do not often hear rich people advocating for paying taxes. John McAfee, who in June was found dead in a Spanish prison from an apparent suicide, was "inarguably the most [colorful] character in the world of antivirus software." 

Mere hours before McAfee's death, the Spanish authorities agreed to extradite him to the US to face tax evasion charges. McAfee was openly against taxation. In 2018 McAfee tweeted, that he had not filed a US tax return in eight years because "taxation is theft" claiming he had already paid "tens of millions already and received jack [expletive] in services."

Abigail Disney, wrote in an article that she was "taught from a young age to protect [her] dynastic wealth." 

The ultra rich often use legal tax-avoidance strategies to limit their federal income tax bills. A report by non-profit ProPublica concluded that legal tax-avoidance strategies allowed the 25 richest Americans to limit their federal income tax bills to $13.6 billion in the five years to 2018 even though their wealth had been boosted by an estimated $401 billion. 

According to Abigail Disney, a big part of the problem is that wealth is not income and tax avoidance is not tax evasion. Legal tax avoidance strategies are just that—legal. Disney also acknowledged that, like Jeff Bezos, the system allows the rich legally to avoid paying tax on huge fortunes that grow every year. 

Some argue that we live in a world in which the rich do not need to practice illegal tax evasion because legal tax avoidance is "so easy and effective." Disney then posed the question: "What motivates people with so much money to try to withhold every last bit of it from the public's reach." 

Alex Rees-Jones, a behavioral economist at Wharton Business School, wrote that "analysis of tax data confirms that tax decision [the desire to pay or avoid] are influenced by loss aversion." In other words, taxpayers engage in strategies that make losses smaller and gains larger. 

From here, Rees-Jones suggested "reframing taxpayer perceptions of what constitutes a gain or a loss." 

The "fix" may be to convince taxpayers that the losses they take as a consequence of tax avoidance are worse than whatever loss they may take if they were to avoid the loopholes. 

See Rhymer Rigby, To get the wealthy to pay more tax, first we need to work out why they avoid it, Financial Times, August 29, 2021. 

Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.

Impact of President Biden's Tax Plan on Estate Planning

There has been speculation on what President Biden's tax proposal will look like and what effects it will have on estate planning. There is also a question about the likelihood that President Biden's tax plan will be enacted into law. 

The Biden Administration announced the American Families Plan in April 2021, which proposed "significant tax law changes to increase taxes on both corporations and high-net worth individuals and to provide more resources to enhance IRS tax enforcement efforts. 

In May 2021, the United States Department of Treasury issued a report entitled, "General Explanation of the Administration's Fiscal 2022 Revenue Proposals (generally referred to as the Green Book) which included more details on the tax law changes previously proposed in the American Families Plan." The memo provided an overview of the proposed changes of the American Families Plan and the impact those changes may have on estate planning. 

Under the current proposal, "there will be a realization of capital gains to the extent such gains are in excess of a $1 million exclusion per person, upon the transfer of appreciated assets at death or by a gift. . .the proposal would provide various exclusions and exceptions for certain family-owned and operated businesses. 

One thing that was not addressed in the Green Book are changes to the federal estate, gift and generation skipping transfer (GST) tax system, although Biden did propose these changes during his campaign. 

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding new tax laws, so high-net-worth individuals with estate tax concerns should consider taking advantage heightened exemptions by implementing wealth transfer strategies like the following: 

• Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust (IDGT)
• Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT)
• Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT)
• Charitable Lead Annuity Trust (CLAT)
• Annual Gifts 
• And more. 

See Jeffrey M. Glogower, Stephen J. Bahr, & Adam W. Randle, Impact of President Biden's Tax Plan on Estate Planning, The National Law Review, July 26, 2021. 

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.

Minnesota farmer concerned tax proposals could fundamentally change structure of family farms

Kirby Hettver, a fifth-generation farmer from DeGraff, Minnesota, expressed concerns about proposed changes to the estate tax. Hettver believes that the proposed changes could "fundamentally change the way family farms are structured. 

Hettver stated, “Obviously we don’t want to make any decisions without knowing a little more about what exactly they are going to end up with.”

President Biden's proposed changes, which include elimination of the stepped-up basis, will affect a lot of families, farm families included. The elimination of stepped-up basis would cause "inherited assets, like land, to be taxed upon the previous owner's death, and lower the estate tax threshold from $11.7 million to $500,000.

Hettver further stated, “In order for us to maintain (the farm) and pass it onto the sixth generation, based on the new policies if we need to make changes we’ll have to figure out what rules we’re playing by and play by them.”

See Mark Dorenkamp, Minnesota farmer concerned tax proposals could fundamentally change structure of family farms, Brownfield Ag News, June 25, 2021. 

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.