The IRS has extended the deadline for individuals to make 2020 contributions to their IRA’s (Traditional and ROTH), health savings accounts (HSAs), Archer Medical Savings Accounts (Archer MSAs), and Coverdell education savings accounts (Coverdell ESAs). The deadline has been automatically extended from April 15, 2021 to May 17, 2021.
Additional detail is available in the full text IRS notice: here
The IRS has released Rev. Rul. 2019-24 to provide guidance on the tax treatment of receiving a cryptocurrency as a result of a hard fork and an airdrop. An owner of the existing cryptocurrency has no gross income if the new cryptocurrency has not been received as a result of a hard fork. However, gross income must be recognized if the new cryptocurrency has been received via airdrop. Click here to see examples. The IRS has also updated its Virtual Currency Transactions FAQs on its website here.
An Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust (IDGT) is commonly used as an effective tool for estate tax planning.
An IDGT is disregarded for income tax purposes, but it is a legally valid irrevocable trust for estate tax purposes. Appreciating assets are usually transferred to an IDGT out of the grantor’s taxable estate. Once the assets are transferred and owned by the IDGT, they are no longer a part of the grantor’s taxable estate. Still the grantor of the IDGT retains some rights and reports the earnings from the IDGT’s assets on his/her personal tax return, while all of the investment income and appreciation remains within the IDGT.
IDGTs are complex in nature, but this article published by the CalCPA Education Foundation provides a very nice overview of how IDGTs work and can be beneficial for estate tax planning purposes. To […]