2025 Increase in Federal Estate Tax and Gift Exemptions (Episode # 307)

0:30 Well, good afternoon, Michiganers. Today is Tuesday, October twenty nine, twenty twenty four, only a couple more days until Halloween, and of course this is Tuesday with Tom, Michigan's only weekly Internet show where we do answer your questions about estate planning and a state settlement in Michigan. As always, I'm your host, Tom Doyle, a state planning attorney, lifelong resident, an ambassador for all things good in this great state of Michigan. Welcome to today's program. Well, last episode Medicaid in Michigan. Why you should remove your home.

1:16 From your trust. If you have a living trust and you have deeded your home into your trust, there might be concerns about that if you have to apply for medicaid. So I invite you. If you have a trust and you've deeded your home into your trust, please listen to last week's episode where I talk about why it might be necessary or recommended that you would remove the home from your trust. Today, well, we're almost almost at the end. Seems hard to believe. Of twenty twenty four, we're November's right around the corner, Holidays will be here, and before you know it, it's going to be January first, So.

2:04 Today twenty twenty five increase. In federal estate tax and gift exemptions. But please remember that what I'm about to discuss during this program is, as always, for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be legal advice. As always, you need to work with your attorney and your tax advisor to determine what is appropriate for you and your estate plan. Twenty twenty five increases in federal estate tax and gift exemptions.

3:01 What does that mean? Well, obviously, on January first, there's going to be some increases. Annually, the IRS takes a look under the current law, based upon inflationary decisions, determines what is going to be the increased amount for various taxes, and today we're going to simply talk about the federal estate tax and the federal gift tax exemption. So twenty twenty five, there's going to be significant adjustments to those that. If your family looking to manage wealth then reduce future tax burdens, you should be aware of these increases and how they might affect your planning. So what are the new exemption limits? Well, the IRS recently announced an increase in the federal estate and give tax exemption. First, estate tax exemption. A state tax, as you know, is the amount of a state that you can have at the time of your death before the federal government starts collecting a tax based upon the value of that estate, which is called the federal estate now the estate tax or federal state tax.

4:25 The state the state, I'm. Sorry, it has to be of a certain size before it's going to be subject to that, and that is a federal estate tax exemption amount. So in twenty twenty four, which is effective for the next two months, essentially, that federal estate tax exemption amount is thirteen million, six hundred and ten thousand dollars. That means, if you were to die yet this year in twenty twenty four, if your estate is not more than sixteen million, six hundred and ten thousand dollars, you would not owe a federal estate tax. On January first, that exemption amount is going to increase to thirteen million, nine hundred and ninety thousand dollars. So again next year twenty twenty five, we don't worry about federal estate taxes, at least having a pay of federal estate tax unless when someone dies in twenty twenty five, their estate is larger than thirteen million, nine hundred.

5:33 And ninety thousand dollars. The other. Consideration that we have for taxes that we want to talk about the increases the gift tax exclusion. The gift tax exclusion that's the amount that you can give anybody during a calendar year and you don't have to worry about filing a gift tax return because it's not subject to. A gift tax. That exclusion amount currently in twenty twenty four is eighteen thousand dollars, meaning during the next two months, if you have not already made gifts to anybody during twenty twenty four, you could give anyone up to eighteen thousand dollars a year yet in twenty twenty four and you don't have to worry about paying a gift tax. Now twenty twenty five January first, that eighteen is going to become nineteen thousand dollars, So again in twenty twenty five, you will be able to give more way by way of gifts without having to worry about a gift tax. Now, the primary reason that we oftentimes talk about the taxes is because how high the taxes can be. We have what's considered a combined a state in gift tax, it gets a little bit into the weeds. But at the end of the day, the maximum amount for federal state tax and gift taxes and then NAY is about forty percent.

7:03 Now it's a graduated scale, but in general conversation with clients, we're talking about a forty percent tax. Generally people are interested in paying a forty percent tax either on gifts or forty percent tax on their estate at the time of their deaths. So these increases for twenty twenty five reflect the inflation of judgments that the IRS is making as a have an ongoing recalibration of taxes. The point is to try and balance tax burdens relative to rising living costs. Now, obviously, higher exemption amounts allows individuals to transfer more assets tax free over their lifetime or at the time or their death, which obviously can significantly affect a client's long term financial planning strategies.

8:01 Now, there's another concept. I've talked about it before in other episodes, but I should remind you of it here, and that is this concept of portability with married couples. Portability to be with married couples, and what does that mean. It's a key feature of federalistate tax that allows married couples to essentially double their estate tax exemption. Twenty twenty four, you have a thirteen million, six hundred and ten thousand dollars exemption. A married couple can essentially double that amount because you each have a thirteen million, six hundred and ten thousand dollars exemption. But the concept of portability is this. Let's say I have an estate I die in twenty twenty four, and my state.

8:53 Is only three million dollars. That means I basically have ten million, six hundred ten ten thousand of unused federal state tax exemption. I can, with this concept of portability, pass that unused portion of my state tax exemption to my spouse. So my spouse can add now to her thirteen million, six hundred. Ten thousand my unused. Ten million, six hundred and ten thousand, which is why we talk about portability, essentially doubling the exemption amount between married people. So next year twenty twenty five, each spouse has at thirteen million, nine hundred ninety thousand dollars. That essentially means they can now have a combined estate of twenty seven million, nine hundred and eighty thousand dollars before they have to worry about federal estates.

10:00 Is now a couple of. Caveats, one being this only applies to us spouses. Okay, these exemption amounts are only talking about US spouses. Secondly, with respect to portability, portability be has to be elected on the estate tax return that gets filed after the first spouse's death. So when someone dies a married couple, if they want to take advantage of this concept of portability, it's important that they meet with a tax professional to determine what needs to be filed in order to pass on the unused exemption amount. We will even have clients today who don't really have much of an estate, but the concern is that the surviving spouse might one day have a large enough estate and so make sure that they file that Gift Tact exemption to protect.

11:05 For that other spouse. And the common one I use is someone who's in medical school. Spouse who's in medical. School is likely going to have a very high yearningcapacity depending upon what area of medicine that they're going to go on to. Perhaps their spouse dies while they're still in medical school. It might be important one day that that unused federalistate tax exemption has passed on to that surviving spouse, And so there's a situation where it could be prudent tax planning even though there is no federal state tax due because of the death of the first spouse to pass on that concept of portability. So we're still going to have portability in twenty twenty five. So what are some of the implications if you will for your state in gift tex plan. Well, essentially, the twenty twenty five increases are going to provide an opportunity for again high networth families to reduce a state and gift tax liabilities.

12:13 And here's some ideas. One with that. Nineteen thousand dollars annual gift tax exclusion, individuals can start giving that amount if they want to any number of recipients without affecting their lifetime exemption. So one of the strategies that oftentimes clients will use is making these annual gifts quite frankly, as a way to shrink the size. Of the estate. So let's say, for example, that you had a federalist a sizeable estate right now that in twenty twenty five is going to exceed that thirteen million, nine hundred and ninety thousand. One of the things that you might consider doing is using annual gifts, using that nineteen thousand dollar annual gift as a way to shrink the size of that state. That could be to multiple airrs, depend upon how many people maybe children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, whatever happens to be using that as a tool for reducing the size of the state. Now that best works over a number of years, if you had nineteen thousand dollars a year, If you did eighteen thousand dollars a year this year, and nineteen thousand dollars a year next year, and going forward over time. Annual gifting is a tool that's oftentimes used to shrink the size of a state that's subject to federal state taxes. Larger exemptions also make it feasible

13:48 to consider establishing and funding certain types of trust rather than your normal revocable living trust, something like an irrevocable life insurance trust, or certain types of charitable trust, or perhaps some sort of an other a different irrevocable trust. The concept being to use these exemption amounts with some additional planning tools. Again, all designed towards shrinking or avoiding that potential forty percent federal estate tax liability. Another consideration, obviously, is you need to review your current state plans. If you've already structured a plan with exemptions in mind, and now these exemptions are going to be increasing, or you a structured a plan where you didn't have a federal estate tax consideration, but maybe your state has grown, you want to revisit different whatever you've got. Do you have a trust, do you have wills, what are your beneficiary resignations, et cetera, et cetera, so that you can take advantage of these higher exemption amounts. Now that is twenty twenty five, But you might be sitting there saying, well, hey, Tom, I don't have a thirteen million, nine hundred and ninety

15:22 thousand dollars US to eight, so I don't have to worry about any of this. And that could be the case if you know you're going to die in twenty twenty five. But I talked about this in previous episodes. What we need to look at now is potential changes beyond twenty twenty five, because while the twenty twenty five increase is a welcome development, It's essential to remember that the current Gift Tex Exemption Federalist D tax exemptions are set to revert to pre twenty eighteen levels on January first, twenty twenty six. That means are going to sunset that nineteen I'm sorry, thirteen million, nine hundred and ninety thousand dollars that you have next year. That because if the law sunsets as it's currently scheduled to, and the only way it's not going to sunset is if whatever president we have after the election next month, and whatever House and Senate we have, if they get together and change it, they can do that. But if they don't or can't get together and change it, that means those exemptions are going to sunset on January first, twenty twenty six. And essentially what that means is that thirteen million, nine hundred

16:52 ninety thousand dollars next year is now going to be somewhere in the area of five to six million. Five to six million obviously is much less than the thirteen million. So you might be sitting there saying, hey, I don't have a thirteen million dollar estate or an almost fourteen million dollars state. The question is do you have an estate though that might be about five to six million dollars, and if so, or more than five to six million dollars, if so, planning should start looking. You should start looking at your planning now for what options you have in order to shrink that estate so that if the law stays as it is on January first, twenty twenty six, you will have done appropriate estate planning. So, because the law is going to sunset, okay, you need to look at utilizing the higher exemptions now in order to avoid potential taxes that you would have as of January first, twenty twenty six. So even if at bottom lane, even if you don't have federal state tax today, look at what the numbers are projected to be January first, twenty twenty six. A lot of are higher network clients we're starting to talk to you about. Okay, what are the

18:23 planning options. Don't wait until December of next year to suddenly say, oh my god, I need to go out and do something, because you might not be able to find an attorney who's going to have the time to be able to do it because of all the other people that are. Waiting until the end of the year. I suggest that it's prudent to look and say, okay, let's see what happens with the presidential election, let's see who's going to control the House in Congress, and start thinking about what options you might have and what it's going to take to implement those options, and then kind of work backwards from there. From December thirtieth December thirty first, at twenty twenty five, what time frame do you need to start working to implement the options to shrink the estate?

19:13 If in fact it is going to reduce to that five to six million, the good news is we're still going to have portability, so again between spouses, it's going to be somewhere between at least best guess right now, ten and twelve million dollars with the portability between spouses. So some of the key takeaways I guess for individual and the family one plan now to lock in those benefits. If you have an estate near or above the exemption threshold, the twenty twenty five increase offers an important opportunity to reduce your further your future tax burdens. Leverage portabilities, make sure that if a spouse guys, the surviving spouse gets appropriate tax advice from a tax professional to look and say, what do I need to do to protect portability in going forward and take advantage of that annual gift exclusion making gifts to family members or perhaps and it's not subject to the federalistate tax exclusion we're talking about, but there might be some whole charitable or giving opportunities, which is a whole different conversation that can be had as a tool for reducing the size of the estate. So, in summary twenty twenty five, federal estate and gift tax

20:46 exemption increases create opportunities to protect and manage your wealth efficiently. Whether you're looking to optimize annual gifting, create tax managed trust, review an existing estate plan, those changes should be factor into your twenty twenty five planning discussions, and by proactively planning, you can ensure that more of your assets reach your intended beneficiaries. You will be protecting. Your family's wealth for generations to come. And finally, again with the potential for these terms these amounts, if you will limit sunsetting January twenty twenty six, now's the time, or at least the beginning of twenty twenty five is the time to start looking at what your options are, of course, Aman and I would be honored to have the opportunity to help you look at your estate tax situation, work with your tax advisor to come up with an appropriate plan, either to take advantage as much as you

22:20 can of the exemption amounts that are currently in place, and how do you protect those exemption amounts going to twenty twenty five, or if you don't obviously have a federal estate tax issues, certainly we are here to help you put together your estate plan to protect your loved ones, or perhaps a mending a current plan that you have, or of course in settling in a state. Simply head on over to Doyle LAWPC dot com. There you're going to find all the information that you need to either schedule an in personal, in person consultation that can be at our East Lansing location or our Grand Rapids headquarter, or scheduling a virtual consultation via Zoom or telephone. That way we can meet with you wherever you happen to be in this great state of Michigan. And reminder too, if all you're looking for is an individual legal document, maybe all you need is a new durable power of attorney.

23:22 You've listened to my previous episode about changes of the law on durable powers of attorney that took effect on July first, and you're saying, Hey, I need to get a new durable power of attorney prepared. Head on over to the legal store. You're going to find information on how you can order individual legal documents that are prepared by an attorney in our office that would then be sent to you for execution. Again, all of that information. Is available at the website Doyle LAWPC dot com. Well, I think that is going to be it for today's show.

24:16 As always, ooh, if you have a comment about the program, perhaps a topic that you'd like to have me discuss, because many of the episodes are based upon suggestions for topics that clients are interested in or questions that you'd like to have answered, simply head out over to Tuesday with Tom dot com, leave a voice message by clicking on the microphone, or send me an email that would be Tom at Tuesday with Tom dot com. And of course, please follow us on Facebook, follow the office on Facebook, and invite your friends and family to do so as well. We try and keep some additional in addition to links to the episode of the some interesting information that we think you might find helpful as you're looking at even traveling in the state and mission or things to do in the state of Michigan, other issues that come up relative to a state planning and that would be Tuesday with Tom. That's a Facebook page. Obviously, the office Facebook page would be Doyle Law PC. And don't forget please join our email list.

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26:53 To learn how we can help you with your estate plan or with settling a loved one's estate, please call us today A five one seven three two three seven three six six. That's five one seven, three two three seven three six six Mm hmm