Estate Taxes

[danjoell]

iowa - recently an uncle of my wife passed away, he lived in nebraska. i was wondering if it was more economically to have mature gov't bonds cashed in prior to closing the estate, would this eliminate the heirs from paying capital gains taxes if they just collected the bonds and cashed them in later?

Also,in determining the value of an estate do you count annuities or mutual funds that have designated beneficiaries?

If they do count as value, then by paying the estate tax on them does this eliminate the tax burden the heirs would have or would they have to pay tax on the gains as well?

 

[ALawyer]

WHOOPS -- you're mixing apples and oranges.

At death all the assets get a new value -- so if the assets or distributed or sold first the capital gains tax issues are the same -- most of the toime. An accountant should advise you on that.


For estate tax purposes ALL assets he held, or had control over -- including insurance and funds and things with beneficiary designations are counted. Assuming the value exceeds $675,000, there would be estate tax.

As for 401k and IRA assets there is income tax too.





[Edited by ALawyer on 06-26-2001 at 10:03 PM]