A common financial mistake married farm couples make occurs when the first spouse dies, and the surviving spouse fails to “elect portability.” It’s a process by which any unused federal gift or estate ...

On Tuesday, the IRS posted a draft version of the instructions to Form 706, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return, a follow-up to the draft Form 706 that was posted in ...

One of the most overlooked and misunderstood tax laws – available to married farming couples – is an opportunity called portability. When one of the spouses dies, the surviving spouse can make a ...

The new Part 6 of the draft Form 706 states that a decedent with a surviving spouse elects portability of the DSUE amount, if any, by completing and timely filing the Form 706. No further action is ...

Last December, Congress pushed through a whole set of changes meant to make them look good on Election Day things easier for taxpayers. One of the changes was the new portability provision which ...

On Oct. 4, the Internal Revenue Service posted final Form 706 for individuals dying in 2012. It posted final updated instructions on Oct. 12. Here’s an overview of the new form and instructions and ...

IMGCAP(1)]The legislation passed by Congress at the end of 2010 to extend the Bush tax rates for another two years is bad news for estate planning practitioners. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance ...

One of the great challenges in financial planning is figuring out how to transfer wealth from one generation to the next in the most tax efficient manner possible. Tax efficiency, in this context, ...

As discussed in earlier posts, portability allows the first spouse to die to transfer his/ her unused estate tax applicable exclusion amount to the surviving spouse, who can then use it for his/her ...