One purpose of the bypass trust is to use the first-to-die spouse’s personal estate tax exemption to save part of his estate from paying estate taxes since his tax exemption would be lost if all his holding were passed to the surviving spouse. At her (the second spouse to die) death, only her personal estate tax exemption would be available to shelter some of her estate for the benefit of heirs. But now, the 2010 Tax Relief allows her to use her deceased husband’s personal estate tax exemption at her death too. This option, though doesn’t wipe out the importance of setting up a bypass trust. Here’s why…. If you have an estate worth more than a few million, then you could be subject to 35% estate taxes on the amount over the estate tax exemption. The exemption was set to revert to only $1 million – which isn’t much…

January 30th, 2011
Money maker
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