MKA Executive Planners Blog

Many foreign individuals choose to invest in the United States for a variety of good reasons such as to provide for family living here, to purchase a second home, or to take advantage of the relative security of the U.S. economic system.  Those non-citizens, whether they are classified as “non-resident aliens” or “resident aliens,” face a complex set of rules based on tax codes and international treaties for income and wealth transfers.

For 2012, the federal exemption from all three transfer taxes is $5,120,000 ($10,240,000 for married couples).  The gift and estate tax exemptions are each scheduled to revert to $1,000,000, and the generation skipping transfer tax exemption (GST) is scheduled to revert to $1,390,000 on January 1, 2013.  No one really expects a complete reversion, but it is highly unlikely that that all three types of transfer taxes will be sustained at the current, historically high, levels.  Here are a few reasons why a great deal of wealth will be transferred between January 1 and December 31, 2012, in variety of ways.