Forbes: A Married Couple’s Guide To Estate Planning, by Deborah L. Jacobs:
The New Year’s Day fiscal cliff bill, which ended an 11-year period of
uncertainty about estate tax exemptions and rates, also made permanent
a wonderful break for widows and widowers that was set to expire after a
two-year introductory period. Starting for deaths in 2011, and now
going forward, widows and widowers can add any unused exclusion of the
spouse who died most recently to their own $5.12 million tax-free
amount. This enables them together to transfer up to $10.24 million
tax-free. It also eliminates the need in many cases for the tax-planning
gyrations that lawyers routinely recommended to preserve each spouse’s
estate tax exemption amount. …As with any new process there is a shakeout period, though. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions:
- Does this provision help me if my spouse died years ago?
- Does portability apply to lifetime gifts as well as assets that pass through an estate plan?
- Does portability apply to same-sex married couples?
- Does portability apply if the surviving spouse is not a U.S. citizen?
- Is portability automatic?
- Is the amount that’s portable adjusted for inflation?
- What happens if you remarry?
- Can I use my exclusion instead to provide for children from a previous marriage?
- Does portability also apply to the exemption from generation-skipping transfer tax?
- Do I still need a bypass trust?
- Is this a subject that should be covered in prenuptial agreements?
