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CEO Musings: FALL 2023 STATUS WEALTH TRANSFER TAXES

Back in the summer of 2011, I wrote an article, “The Status of Wealth Transfer Taxes.” The $5M estate gift tax exclusion level had just been adopted. The estate tax, gift tax and generation skipping tax were unified at 35%. Portability had just been adopted.

I wrote, “We have remained under a cloud of uncertain legislation and rules. The estate planning environment has been supported by four strong legs of the stool. We have witnessed the longest, strongest, deepest recession in our lifetime, and valuations will never be lower. We are experiencing a historically low interest rate environment, which enhances most of the estate planning techniques that we are able to implement. We are in an environment where the budget crisis begs for increased revenue and, therefore, increasing taxes in the future, coupled with a tax the rich mentality.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The exemption levels have grown to almost $13M (although, scheduled to be halved at the end of 2025), and the unified death tax rate has gone to 40%. We are still living through trillion-dollar deficits and our government has no success at reigning in spending. Now, however inflation and higher interest rates make additional tax revenue more urgent. Read more

By Mike Hoffman

Esquire, CPA

By Juli Findling

Sr. Paralegal

Why Your College Student Needs An Advance Health Care Directive: A Real-Life Story

A few years back, one of my daughters (I’ll call her Claudia for the sake of continued good familial relations) went off to college at UGA. Off-campus, Athens is known for its lively downtown life, and Claudia, in need of extra spending money, and having a bad case of FOMO (“fear of missing out”), took a job as a bartender at one of the local hot-spots on Clayton Street.

One night after closing, she and her co-workers, tasked with rigorously cleaning the restaurant and bar, loaded up a large bin with liquor bottles to store in the basement. The manager had strongly warned the staff against carrying heavy loads down the stairs to the basement, but after a long shift, by 2:30 in the morning, Claudia wanted to get home ASAP. She decided to make the liquor-stashing run.

Now, this building is old, and the stairs are badly worn. Near the very top, the heel of her boot slipped off the step, and she toppled down the entire staircase - bucket, bottles, and body! She awoke at the bottom covered in broken glass, with Officer Grimes's face (the local cop who had a penchant for arresting Minors In Possession) checking her pupils.

By Tabitha Relota

Tax Accountant, EA

The IRS Announces That They Will Begin Auditing Employee Retention Credit Claims

In 2020, the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) was created by the CARES Act to assist businesses that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the ERC, an eligible business may claim a refundable credit up to 70% of qualified wages paid to employees, up to $10,000 per employee, per quarter, for 2020 and 2021.

However, utilizing ERC may put a business at risk for audit if the credit is claimed without eligibility. There are many third parties who have gotten into the business of assisting businesses with claiming ERC. As often happens, there is considerable perceived abuse. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has recently communicated that it will begin to audit ERC claims to ensure that the credits were taken appropriately, confirming that credit(s) were taken in compliance of the law, and determining if there was any potential fraud. Read more

Did you know that up to 72% of Americans either don't have an up to date will - or don't have a will at all?

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