Estate Planning and Payroll Professional Writing

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Smiths to Minimize Their Total Tax Liability

Mr. and Mrs. Smith's concerns about their future income and estate tax bills are important because of their need to engage in tax planning, which can be described as organizing personal financial affairs in order to lessen taxes. In light of their concerns and current situation, there are several recommendations or ways with which the Smiths can reduce their future income and estate tax bills. Therefore, your advice to them on tax planning should be based on considerations of these various recommendations in light of their advantages and disadvantages in addressing their concerns.

One of the ways through which the Smith's can minimize their total tax liability is through giving annually, which will help lessen future estate taxes. As of 2015, the federal estate gift and estate tax exemption amount was $5.43 million, which implied that taxable estate exceeding this amount would be subject to estate tax bills at adjusted rates of up to 40% (Massachusetts Financial Services Company, n.d.). Since the value of the Smiths' current estate is valued at $15 million, they would be liable to estate tax rates since the value exceeds the estate tax exemption amount. Therefore, the Smiths can lessen their future income and estate tax bills through giving annually. In this case, the Smiths can give their daughter annual gifts of up to $28,000 given that each donor is allowed to make an annual tax-free gift of $14,000 per recipient. The limit applies to either spouse, which essentially means that a married couple can give a gift of up to $28,000 tax exempt as of 2015. This alternative is associated with some advantages and disadvantages in relation to minimizing the total tax liability. One of the advantages of this option is that it will enable the Smiths to significantly lessen their total tax liability through giving tax exempt gifts to their daughter.

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Secondly, this strategy would help ensure that the Smiths do not owe any current gift tax. However, the are some cons of this strategy including the likelihood for the Smiths' daughter to owe capital gains tax on a future sale because her tax basis on the home will be their presumably low cost for the state. Secondly, the Smiths will reduce their unified federal gift and estate tax exemption since its lessened dollar for dollar for amounts exceeding $14,000 (Bischoff, 2015).

The second recommendation is for the Smiths to pay some or all of their daughter's gift as a salary during 2015 rather than put her on the payroll of their S-corporation. This is primarily because putting their daughter on the payroll of their S-corporation would imply that they do not receive the advantage of avoiding payroll taxes when making payments to their child (Kohler, 2015). If the Smiths put their daughter on their S-corporation's payroll, they will be subject to withholding including FICA while paying her some or all of her gifts as a salary would exempt them withholding payroll taxes. The first advantage of this recommendation is that it enables them to avoid the withholding problem. Secondly, this strategy would enable their daughter to avoid paying federal income taxes on the first $6,300 of their income in 2015. However, the disadvantages include the fact the implementation of the alternative would require changing the business structure to a family management company rather than the current S-corporation. Secondly, the child would still be subjected to federal income taxes once the amount exceeds $6,300 during that year.

The final recommendation is for the Smiths to utilize an irrevocable trust i.e. a Qualified Personal Residence Trust. This is a suitable measure for them to minimize their total tax liability because it's an IRS-approved gift of their home.....

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