Preservation | Family Wealth Protection & Planning

The Internal Revenue Service has released the Applicable Federal Rates (AFRs) for August 2019. AFRs are published monthly and represent the minimum interest rates that should be charged for family loans to avoid tax complications.

On June 21, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided in favor of a taxpayer trust, finding that the state of North Carolina could not tax the trust merely because a trust beneficiary, who received no trust income or right to demand income, resided in North Carolina.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the Applicable Federal Rates (AFRs) for July 2019. AFRs are published monthly and represent the minimum interest rates that should be charged for family loans to avoid tax complications.

Here are the rates for July 2019:

The Internal Revenue Service has released the Applicable Federal Rates (AFRs) for May 2019. AFRs are published monthly and represent the minimum interest rates that should be charged for family loans to avoid tax complications.

Here are the rates for May 2019:

How many times have you prepared your income tax returns for the previous year, only wishing you knew then what you know now, so you could go back and make more advantageous tax decisions? In most cases, you are stuck with the decisions you made before the new tax year began, even though you may not have all of the relevant tax information available to assist with those decisions until several months into the new tax year. Too bad for you, says the IRS, unless you are an estate or trust.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the Applicable Federal Rates (AFRs) for March 2019. AFRs are published monthly and represent the minimum interest rates that should be charged for family loans to avoid tax complications.

Here are the rates for March 2019:

The Internal Revenue Service has released the Applicable Federal Rates (AFRs) for February 2019. AFRs are published monthly and represent the minimum interest rates that should be charged for family loans to avoid tax complications.

Here are the rates for February 2019:

The Internal Revenue Service has released the Applicable Federal Rates (AFRs) for January 2019. AFRs are published monthly and represent the minimum interest rates that should be charged for family loans to avoid tax complications.

Here are the rates for January 2019:

With an estate tax exemption of $11.18 million in 2018 (rising to $11.4 million in 2019), estate planning has been turned on its head. For most people, estate taxes are no longer an issue, and the increased exemption provides options for reducing capital gains taxes. For those families with estates over $22.8 million, the new gift/estate tax exemption provides additional opportunities for estate tax planning.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 brought a myriad of changes to the tax law, including for individual taxpayers. While certain deductions that were available to individuals have now been limited — e.g., the $10,000 limit on the state and local income tax (SALT) deduction — the standard deduction has increased to $24,000 for a married couple filing jointly and $12,000 for single filers. In 2017, the standard deduction was $12,700 for a married couple filing jointly and $6,350 for single filers.