Bacus Bill
Money Matters Radio – Estate Planning Q&A with Gary Goldberg
By:
Introduction/Overview: A bill was proposed by Bacus in the Senate to revise the estate tax rules.
√ Question: It was defeated why do we care?
√ Answer: The Bacus bill is probably a great glimpse where the estate tax is going.
√ Question: What are some of its provisions?
√ Answer: 45% rate and $3.5 million exclusion with inflation indexing. It also includes portability.
√ Question: What’s portability?
√ Answer: If you die and don’t use your exclusion your surviving spouse can. Sounds great and simple but it will cause people to be lax and avoid the planning they should do. There is also a lot of complexity, what if your surviving spouse remarries? What if inflation kicks up asset values on what you leave your spouse? It ignores the myriad of non-tax reasons for trusts.