CPA Estate Planning Tips for National Estate Planning Awareness Week

Accounting Today

National Estate Planning Awareness Week is October 19 to 25, and two New York CPAs have some advice for estate planners and their clients. Fred Slater, CPA of MS 1040 LLC, pointed out that only approximately 3,700 estates, or 0.12 percent of the total, are expected to owe federal estate tax this year. “Lifetime gift and estate tax exclusions have risen slightly, to $5,430,000 in 2015, while the maximum estate and gift tax rate remains 40 percent,” he said. “The applicable exclusion amounts will continue to be indexed for inflation annually, and the portability provision that allows couples to take full advantage of each other’s unused federal estate and gift tax exclusion amounts, without having to create complicated trusts or wills, remains effective.”