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give away money before dying

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mccnumber2son

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? california
Elderly mother wants to distribute her estate to sons before she dies. How can this be done to avoid tax burden to her or her sons?
 


Kiawah

Senior Member
How much is the estate worth, and how many sons.

You can give away 12K (think it's raised to 13K in 2009) per year to any individual (so sons and spouses and grandkids can all get that amount), no questions asked.

If more than that is needed to be distributed, read IRS guidelines. I forget the publication number, but do a search on gifting on the Internal Revenue Service site. She can gift more than the annual amount away, but needs to declare it with a form on her income tax submission, and then it effectively reduces the amount out of her estate when she dies. The publication references the form to be submitted, I'm thinking it's 709 but it's been a couple years since I had to do that.

Beware of your state Medicaid/Medicaire rules for gifting lookback. They may deny her nursing home coverage if she gifted her money away before needing nursing care.
 
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