gift. tax?

Every individual can give $11,000.00 each to as many people as she or he wants, every year. That means that a husband and wife can give $11,000.00 per year each to each of their children and each of their grandchildren. If they had two childrena nd four grandchildren, that's $132,000.00 per year. This $10,000.00 per donor per donee per year rule is called the annual gift tax exclusion. Such gifts do not count towards a decedent's lifetime estate and gift tax credit. Each person can give away an additional $5,340,000.00 during the peron's life and when the person dies. For a married couple, if the first to die does not give everything to the survivor, this can allow a total of $10,680,000.00  to avoid estate tax, in addition to lifetime gifts under $11,000.00 and gifts to IRS acknowledged charities. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any friends or acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Do you have a revocable living trust to protect your heirs against probate? Probate takes forever, is expensive, and is annoying. Do your family a favor. Set up a trust, and put all your property, especially any real property, into the trust. Since it is revocable, you can change it, add to it, take property out of it, or even cancel it completely, at any time. We set up such trusts, provide a pour-over will as a back-up for any property that does not make it into the trust, provide you with blank durable powers of attorney for health care and financial decisions, in case you become incapable of making such decisions while still alive, and convey one piece of real property to the trust, usually the family home, for $1500.00. If you would like to hire me to do this, let me know, and I'll send you a list of the information I need. Dana Sack