All property accumulated during one's lifetime must be transferred either during life or at death.
Record amounts of personal wealth will transfer to the next generation in just the next 10 years alone. Estates and trusts are two of the ways in which people can transfer their wealth, and they are two reasons why clients need our expertise.
We have extensive experience in Estate, Gift and Trust tax planning and in the preparation of the related tax returns. We also prepare Court/Fiduciary Accountings and can provide Asset Valuations. In addition to federal estate tax filings, we have experience with Pennsylvania and other state’s Inheritance returns. We are experienced in working in cooperation with attorneys and also directly with individual executors and trustees in this area.
Estates and nongrantor trusts must file income tax returns just as individuals do, but with some important differences. For one, their income is taxed at either the entity or beneficiary level depending on whether it is allocated to principal or allocated to distributable income and whether it is distributed to the beneficiaries. And because estate and trust exemption amounts, tax brackets and related thresholds haven’t been indexed for inflation or modified for tax relief to the extent those for individuals have, they can be subject to higher tax rates at much lower levels of income.
How can we help you? We offer:
- Practical and sophisticated estate and trust planning strategies
- Timely, accurate preparation of tax returns
- Coordination of tax returns – returns for individual income tax, trust/estate income tax, & estate/inheritance tax
- Advice and assistance with tax elections and forms
- Proper fiduciary accounting to protect the trustee and report to the beneficiaries
- Annual updates when doing each year’s personal or trust income tax return – identify issues that may require additional estate planning work
Contact Marc Simmons for more information about our estate and trust services. |
