Advisors should protect their clients who own fine art and other collectibles from financial loss with properly executed tax and estate planning. This article highlights two recent examples of how oversights, such as defective title, create marketability challenges that may result in substantial financial consequences for collectors.
Since the election, President Obama has reaffirmed his commitment to increasing marginal tax rates for upper income taxpayers while maintaining for lower income taxpayers the tax rates that have been in place since 2001. The basic theme is to reverse for upper income taxpayers the tax benefits conferred by the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconci...
Choosing an executor is one of the most important decisions individuals make when preparing their will. This white paper explains the executor’s role and offers insights into how you might choose an executor for your estate.
Many people are aware that the current federal gift and estate tax exemption of $5 million is scheduled to revert to $1 million at the end of 2012. Not only is the exemption set to drop, tax rates are slated to increase from 35 percent to a range that tops out at 55 percent. This means that a single person who makes a $5 million gift on December 31...
This paper provides an analysis of the new 3.8% Medicare surtax set to take effect in 2013 and recommends planning strategies to reduce its impact. Atlantic Trust suggests several vehicles to mitigate the effect of this tax, including tax-exempt bonds, rental real estate, S-Corporations, Roth IRA conversions, charitable remainder trusts and install...
It has been more than three years since the enactment of Sec. 877A, which introduced a mark-to-market tax on U.S. persons expatriating on or after June 16, 2008. Its introduction has impacted the decisions of many to attain a green card or citizenship. It can be costly for wealthy individuals to become a covered expatriate (as described below)...
Time is of the essence. Significant wealth planning opportunities are set to expire at the end of 2012. It is critical for wealthy families that have taken a wait and see approach to the future of gift and estate taxes to formulate a plan now. Developing and implementing well thought out and properly structured wealth planning strategies takes mont...
This report sheds light on a little-noticed wrinkle triggered by possible new 2013 rate changes that will make some taxpayers no longer subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Wealthy taxpayers currently paying AMT may see their effective marginal rates rise by as much as 12.5 percentage points under the law now scheduled to go into effect in...
In the past year, the IRS sharply increased the number of returns it audited, particularly those of high-income earners. According to a government official, this is an effort “to build public confidence in the tax system, encouraging voluntary compliance” and to make sure that both the low end and high end of the income scale are subjec...
One of the potential benefi ts of wealth planning is the opportunity for families to have meaningful conversations about their hopes, dreams, legacy wishes, and more. These types of planning discussions can help to create family intimacy, and help build relationship capital for the future. In this white paper, Fidelity advisor Dr. Timothy G. Habber...
Just before midnight on January 1, 2013, the House of Representatives adopted the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. There were few surprises except, perhaps, the extent to which numerous deduction and credit provisions remain intact. While the Act is expected to raise approximately $650 billion over the next 10 years, Congress must now contend ...
Keeping in mind that permanence and certainty are relative terms when it comes to tax legislation, Congress has finally provided a platform that allows for longer-term planning than we have had in the past. Although the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was passed too late to provide the certainty that is so important for year-end tax planning, ...
After briefly plunging over the “fiscal cliff” – the combination of tax increases and spending cuts that automatically came into effect on January 1, 2013 – Congress quickly passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the “Act”), which has now been signed into law by President Obama. This white paper summarizes those aspects of the Act that Wi...
After many months of heated debate, Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (“ATRA”), which President Obama signed into law on January 2, 2013, averting the tax side of the so-called “fiscal cliff”. ATRA permanently extends the middle-class tax cuts, raises income tax rates on the wealthiest and, hopefully, ...
The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced the fourth in a series of deadline extensions for certain required filings in relation to foreign assets. FinCEN Notice 2012-2 extends the filing date for some filers of Form TD F 90-22.1, “Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR),&rdqu...