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Making gifts to children and grandchildren is a strategy sometimes used to reduce taxes. Doing so may shift some of your income into a lower tax bracket and remove assets from your taxable estate. But if you employ this strategy, beware of a hidden tax sometimes called t...

A tried-and-true estate planning strategy is to make tax-free gifts to loved ones during life, because it reduces potential estate tax at death. There are many ways to make tax-free gifts, but one of the simplest is to take advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion with direct...

In 2017, the amount you can give to one person without triggering a gift tax return is $14,000 per donor, per recipient. It is unchanged from 2016. You might be able to give someone more than this amount for certain expenses. For example, tuition or medical expenses that you pay...

Fall is a good time to pause and review your financial planning strategy. A lot can happen in a year. If your personal life, market conditions or tax laws have changed, you may need to revise your long-term financial plans. Here are some retirement and estate planning...

Charitable giving is on the rise. And the momentum is expected to continue, given the natural disasters and human tragedies that have happened in recent months. Last year, charitable donations reached an all-time high of approximately $373.25 billion, according to Giving USA...

Recently, the IRS released the 2016 annually adjusted amount for the unified gift and estate tax exemption and the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption: $5.45 million (up from $5.43 million in 2015). But even with the rising exemptions, annual exclusion gifts offer a...

The annual exclusion for gifts remains at $14,000 for 2015. (Married couples can gift up to $28,000 combined.) This limit applies to the total of all gifts, including birthday and holiday gifts, made to the same individual during the year. However, any payment made directly to...

Generally, you’ll need to file a gift tax return for 2014 if, during the tax year, you made gifts: That exceeded the $14,000-per-recipient gift tax annual exclusion (other than to your U.S. citizen spouse), That you wish to split with your spouse to take advantage of your...

The 2014 gift tax annual exclusion allows you to give up to $14,000 per recipient tax-free without using up any of your lifetime gift tax exemption. If you and your spouse “split” the gift, you can give $28,000 per recipient. The gifted assets are removed from your taxable...

Are you planning to make charitable donations before year end? Do you own appreciated stock that you’d like to sell, but you’re concerned about the tax hit? Then consider donating it to charity rather than making a cash gift. Appreciated publicly traded stock you’ve held more...