Bloomberg, Rich People Rush to Offload Wealth Before Estate Tax Break Drops:

Wealthy taxpayers are hurrying to use the increased estate tax exemption amount before it potentially expires at the end of 2025.

Republicans’ 2017 tax-cut law doubled the estate tax exemption but built in a 2025 sunset. Those with over the exemption amount, which stands at about $13.6 million per person for 2024, in gifts or in their estate face a 40% transfer tax.

It’s unclear what the estate tax will look like after 2025, with the future of the exemption and many other 2017 law provisions hinging on the 2024 election. Republicans have long criticized the estate tax and have made multiple bids to repeal it entirely, while Democrats see the tax as a way to raise revenue from the ultra-wealthy.

Given the uncertainty of the exemption amount down the line, wealthy individuals are scrambling to lower the value of their estate and make large gifts in the next two years.

“We’re in the shot clock,” said Emily Plocki, an estate lawyer at Venable LLP, about using the elevated exemption. “It’s now or never.”

Laura Hinson, a Deloitte managing director who specializes in family wealth planning, said she expects three to four times more gifts this year than typically because of the impending sunset.

“If people wait until 2025 and they want to make transfers and use their exemption, they could have trouble finding an attorney with the bandwidth to prepare a new trust document,” Hinson said in an interview.