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To ensure compliance with IRS requirements, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this website (including any attachments or directed links) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.
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Any advice in this communication is limited to the conclusions specifically set forth herein and is based on the completeness and accuracy of the stated facts, assumptions and/or representations included. In rendering our advice, we may consider tax authorities that are subject to change, retroactively and/or prospectively, and any such changes could affect the validity of our advice. We will not update our advice for subsequent changes or modifications to the law and regulations, or to the judicial and administrative interpretations thereof.
For more information on Circular 230, please click here.
No Rendering of Advice
The information contained within this website is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for obtaining accounting, tax, or financial advice from a professional accountant. Presentation of the information via the Internet is not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, an accountant-client relationship. Internet subscribers, users and online readers are advised not to act upon this information without seeking the service of a professional accountant. Any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this website is not intended to be used for the purpose of avoiding penalties under U.S. federal tax law.
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Reminders & Updates
2023 Standard Mileage Rates
| Purpose | Rates per Mile |
| Business | 65.5 cents |
| Medical/Moving | 22 cents |
| Charitable | 14 cents |
2022 Standard Mileage Rates
| Purpose | Rates 1/1 to 6/30/22 | Rates 7/1 to 12/31/22 |
| Business | 58.5 cents | 62.5 cents |
| Medical/Moving | 18 cents | 22 cents |
| Charitable | 14 cents | 14 cents |
Check It Out!
Check out the article in PICPA CPA Now by Greg Kashella, published November 2021, Enhanced Financial Statement Disclosures for Small Businesses.
Check out the article in the Central Penn Business Journal, Women Who Lead, March 2019 article featuring our partner Jori Culp
Tax-Related Identity Theft
The IRS combats tax-related identity theft with aggressive strategies of prevention, detection and victim assistance. To find out more about tax-related identity theft call our office or visit https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/identity-protection for information and guidance.
Remember that the IRS will never contact you by electronic means. This includes emails, phone calls, text messages, or social media channels. If you are ever in doubt whether contact by someone claiming to be from the IRS is legitimate, call our office first for verification.
Weekly Tax Brief
You may think you don’t need to make any estate planning moves because of the generous federal estate tax exemption of $12.92 million for 2023 (effectively $25.84 million if you’re married).
However, if you have significant assets, you should consider establishing a living trust to avoid probate. Probate is a court-supervised legal process intended to make sure a deceased person’s assets are properly distributed. However, going through probate typically means red tape, legal fees and your financial affairs becoming public information. You can avoid this with a living trust (also commonly called a family trust, grantor trust and revocable trust).
How they work
You establish the living trust and transfer legal ownership of assets for which you wish to avoid probate to it (such as your main home, a vacation property, antique furniture, etc.).
In the trust document, you name a trustee to be in charge of the trust’s assets after you die and specify which beneficiaries will get which assets.
You can be the trustee while you’re alive. After that, you can designate your attorney, CPA, adult child, sibling, faithful friend or financial institution to be the trustee.
Because a living trust is revocable, you can change its terms at any time, or even unwind it completely, while you’re alive and legally competent. That’s why it’s called a living trust.
For federal income tax purposes, the existence of the living trust is ignored while you’re alive. As far as the IRS is concerned, you still personally own the assets that are in the trust. So, you continue to report on your tax return any income generated by trust assets and any deductions related to those assets, such as mortgage interest on your home.
For state-law purposes, however, the living trust isn’t ignored. Done properly, it avoids probate. And that’s the goal.
When you die, the living trust assets are included in your estate for federal estate tax purposes. However, assets that go to your surviving spouse aren’t included in your estate, assuming your spouse is a U.S. citizen — thanks to the so-called unlimited marital deduction privilege.
As explained earlier, you probably don’t have to worry about a federal estate tax bill with today’s huge exemption. But the exemption is scheduled to go down drastically in 2026 unless Congress extends it. If Congress fails to do so, you may need to revisit your estate plan.
Some caveats
A living trust has several benefits, but mind these details or you won’t get the expected probate avoidance:
- When you fill out forms to designate beneficiaries for life insurance policies, retirement accounts and brokerage firm accounts, the named beneficiaries can automatically cash in upon your death without going through probate. If the distribution provisions of your living trust are different from your beneficiary designations, the latter will take precedence. So, keep beneficiary designations current because your living trust’s provisions won’t override them.
- If you co-own real estate jointly with right of survivorship, the other co-owner(s) will automatically inherit your share upon your death. It makes no difference what your living trust says.
- You must transfer legal ownership of assets to the living trust for it to perform its probate-avoidance magic. Many people set up living trusts and then fail to follow through by transferring ownership. If so, the probate-avoidance advantage is lost.
More planning may be needed
Living trusts do nothing to avoid or minimize the federal estate tax or state death taxes. If you have enough wealth to be exposed to these taxes, additional planning is required to reduce or eliminate them. Contact us for more information.
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