The marital deduction law allows married couples to transfer an unlimited amount to their spouse without an estate tax hit; however, upon the death of a spouse, the surviving spouse does not get this privilege (unless they remarry) and if his / her estate exceeds the federal and state
estate tax exemption then it will be taxed upon their death.
Not exact matches
If you wish to use GST planning for your children so that your assets can benefit them during their lifetimes and
then pass to your grandchildren without incurring
estate tax at that time, you must preserve the GST
exemption.
PS: In my previous post on U.S.
Estate Taxes, I incorrectly mentioned that the
then exemption of $ 2 million applied to U.S. property held by Canadians.
For instance, if a surviving spouse disclaims assets worth $ 1 million dollars and her remaining
estate is less than the federal
exemption ($ 5.25 million), but above their state's
exemption then those assets would be subject to state
estate tax.
I see that for 2010 to 2012 the
exemption for US
estate taxes would be $ 5M and
then $ 1.2 M afterwards.
If your
estate receives the benefit of the life insurance and your
estate exceeds the federal
estate tax exemption amount
then the
estate can be
taxed.
On the other hand, if new legislation was favorable to the
estate tax (such as upping the
exemption so that an
estate wasn't subject to the
estate tax at all),
then no gift would be made and no
tax incurred.
However, if the death benefit is included in her
estate, and the value of the
estate exceeds state or federal
estate tax exemption amounts,
then it could be
taxed.
If your
estate receives the benefit of the life insurance and your
estate exceeds the federal
estate tax exemption amount
then the
estate can be
taxed.
If the legal owner of a large life insurance policy passes and that person's gross
estate value is greater that the current
estate tax exemption,
then the death benefit from the policy would likely be subject to steep
estate taxes.
So at time of death, the giver's lifetime taxable gifts could total $ 5.25 million and no gift
tax would be due, but
then the giver's federal
estate tax exemption would be reduced to zero.