ESTATE PLANNING & TAXATION

MARRIED COUPLES

Married couples are effectively treated as one economic unit for federal gift tax and federal estate tax purposes, as long as each spouse is a U.S. citizen. This is accomplished using the unlimited marital deduction–a powerful estate planning tool, because you can conceivably give or leave your entire estate to your spouse tax free. The deduction not only allows spouses to shift wealth between each other without incurring gift tax or estate taxes, but also allows spouses to maximize the benefits that result (e.g., equalizing your estates to take full advantage of the applicable exclusion amount). This is especially important since the passage of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (the 2001 Tax Act) signed by President Bush on June 7, 2001, which has increased the exclusion amount (as described in a following section). Married couples should also consider creating a bypass or credit shelter trust.