Tax, Trusts & Estates Law Monitor : Estate Planning Lawyer & Attorney : Cole Schotz Meisel Forman & Leonard Law Firm : NJ, Mid-Atlantic Gift Tax & Trust Issues

This week, the Senate considered the House’s version of the Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act of 2010. Going into the hearings, there was considerable speculation that the Senate was going to pass its bill with the GRAT restrictions in place, meaning the minimum term for GRATs would be 10 years, and the remainder interests of any GRATs would have to have a value greater than zero.

The speculation was incorrect. The Senate’s version of the House Bill currently does not contain the GRAT restrictions, so for now, short term GRATs remain a viable technique. The House bill and the Senate version of the bill will ultimately have to reconciled. It is unclear whether the GRAT restrictions will be included. Thus, if you are planning to implement a short term GRAT, it is advisable to do it as soon as possible due to the uncertainty of the legislation.

We will continue to advise you on GRAT legislation as it happens.
 

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There have been a number of new developments related to federal and state level estate taxes over the past few months.

• House passes 10 year minimum term for GRATs. On March 24, 2010, the House passed the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010 which contains a provision instituting a 10 year minimum term for GRATs and a requirement that the remainder interest for GRATs be greater than zero. As we have detailed in prior blog posts, short term GRATs are an effective estate planning tool to transfer significant wealth to younger generations estate and gift tax free. If enacted into law, the use of GRATs will be severely limited. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration. If you have been considering implementing a GRAT, you should move forward quickly before it is too late.
• NJ estate tax extended to non-residents? A bill was introduced on February 8, 2010 in New Jersey seeking to extend the New Jersey estate tax to non-residents who own real or tangible property in New Jersey. Currently, the New Jersey estate tax only applies to New Jersey residents.
• Florida estate tax on non-residents? Bills were filed in both the Florida House and Senate in February, 2010 to impose a Florida estate tax on non-residents who own real or personal property in Florida and who reside in states that tax Florida residents who own property in those states. If enacted, the law would be effective July 1, 2010.
• Federal estate tax repeal. We are three months into the one year estate tax repeal and there are no new significant developments. It remains pure speculation at this point whether the repeal will be replaced with a new estate tax law and if so, will the new law be retroactively applied so that the repeal is treated as if it never existed, or whether the repeal will run its course for 2010 and 2011 will bring a reinstated estate tax with much lower exemption amounts ($1 million federal exemption and generation-skipping transfer tax amounts).

We of course will be following all of these developments closely and will post updates if and when the status of the above matters change.
 

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The IRS has released the AFR interest rate for October, reducing the September AFR rate from 3.4% to 3.2%. While this is above the historically low 2% AFR rate in February, it still represents a very low interest rate, making GRATs a very attractive estate planning device to transfer significant wealth to your family members gift and estate tax free. In this environment where there are some proposals in Congress designed to curtail the use of GRATs, it again highlights that now is the time to seriously consider implementing a GRAT if you have a large taxable estate.

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