This is mainly for professionals, but if you have lost a loved one, you may want to look at it too. WHen the estate tax exclusion was increased to $5000000, The Deceased Spouse Unused Exclusion Amount must be elected to be moved to the surviving spouse without the use of an A-B trust arrangement (but I believe there may be times where you need to elect to move this even with and A – B Trust setup).To make the election, you must file a form 706 even if one is not required! See the article attached:http://www.advisorone.com/2011/10/15/portability-election-could-trigger-estate-tax-retu?utm_source=wealthmgmt91411&utm_medium=enewsletter&utm_campaign=wealthmgmtMany thanks to Michael Long of Goldcoast Securities for emailing me this. www.gcsec.com clong@gcsec.com
Brian’s Tax Musings
Well the IRS has come out with the 2012 Inflation Adjusted tax deductions and exemptions. Yes, there is inflation according to the government (gasp). See this article in Accounting Today for a breakdown:http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Inflation-Adjustments-Trigger-Bigger-Tax-Benefits-60529-1.html
Brian’s Tax Musings
So now the Teacher’s Union is talking about putting an initiative on the ballot to increase taxes on people making over a million dollars in income to fund schools, colleges, and other social programs (what happened to the lottery; remember our schools win too.) They want to tax the top who pay a lot of the taxes. The top 1% of earners (who make about $350,000) earn about 20% of all income but pay about 40% of the taxes. See the article below:http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_19133319Just remember if you tax the rich too much, they have the capacity and the reasons to move somewhere else!