When Georgia business owners prepare their estate plans, they must decide how to transfer shares of their companies to beneficiaries. Transferring non-liquid assets like business interests could be more difficult and expensive now that new regulations have been...
Estate Taxes
Life insurance proceeds and avoiding estate taxes
While many Georgia residents are aware that life insurance proceeds are not subject to income taxes, they may not know that there are other types of taxes to which the proceeds may be subject. By setting up irrevocable life insurance trusts for life insurance...
Estate of Whitney Houston battles IRS bill
When a popular singer passes away, fans in Georgia and around the world might be moved to purchase digital or other forms of that person's recorded works. However, this issue has come into play as the estates of such deceased celebrities have been saddled with hefty...
“Right of publicity” questions in Prince estate
Prince fans in Georgia may have heard that his sister has stated that her brother left no will. Settling his estate may raise a number of issues including one known as "right to publicity." This is an issue that also arose with Michael Jackson's estate. "Right of...
Reducing estate taxes
The current federal estate tax exemption is $5.45 million per person, and after that, any additional part of a person's estate may be taxed. While that may seem like an enormous amount of money, many states also have estate taxes that have much lower taxation...
The tax rates of wealthy Americans
Georgia residents likely know that the United States has what is known as a progressive tax system. This means that wealthy individuals are required to pay a higher rate of income tax than those who are less fortunate, but this is offset by a number of exemptions and...
CPAs advocate beneficiary rule changes
Georgia residents who have been named as an executor under a will may be able to count on more understandable tax reporting rules if the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants gets its way. In late January, the AICPA mailed individual letters to both the...
Beneficiary designations important in estate planning
Georgia residents who are working on their estate plans should pay careful attention to their beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies and other assets. Often, beneficiary designations are overlooked even when people are otherwise...
Estate tax rules to know in Georgia
In 2016, an estate worth less than $10,000 will be taxed at a marginal tax rate of 18 percent. At the top of the estate tax tables, an estate worth more than a $1 million will pay $345,800 plus 40 percent of the amount in excess of $1 million. While this may seem like...
Georgia estates to be impacted by IRS rules
Recently, the IRS changed its rules about the distribution of closing letters. Instead of automatically sending such letters to indicate the end of an estate filing and the completed payment of related federal taxes, the agency will only send notices when they're...