Medicare and Giving your inheritance as a gift

[cindylou]

Indiana, Hello, My mother(age 55, on full disablility) is recieving an inheritance from her late father and wants to give the money to my sister and myself. I asked my accountant how this would work with gift tax and depositing the check and so on. He said she could sign the check over to me and deposit into my account and file a form that would free us from any gift tax. Do you have any advice about this? And also, how will this affect my mothers medicare since she is signing it over to us? Thank You for any response anyone has!

 

[pojo2]

Medicare or Medicad?

I hate fraud.

 

[divgradcurl]

Indiana, Hello, My mother(age 55, on full disablility) is recieving an inheritance from her late father and wants to give the money to my sister and myself. I asked my accountant how this would work with gift tax and depositing the check and so on. He said she could sign the check over to me and deposit into my account and file a form that would free us from any gift tax. Do you have any advice about this? And also, how will this affect my mothers medicare since she is signing it over to us? Thank You for any response anyone has!

Talk to an attorney, not an accountant. As pojo2 noted, depending on the exact circumstances, it may be fraud to gift away money in order to maintain medicare benefits. It may be possible to do, but you will want to do it exactly right, otherwise the government may be able to void the gift AND penalize everyone involved (civilly and potentially criminally). You will want to talk with an elder law attorney who specializes in estate planning and medicare planning.