Year-End Tax Tips

• Share

The most celebrated date in the year when it comes to taxes is, of course, April 15--the first and most widely observed deadline for filing your tax return. But from a planning point of view, year-end is the more critical moment, and it's bearing down like an IRS agent with Leona Helmsley's diary. You can still cut your tax bill for 1999 and beyond. Don't panic. But put down the holiday shopping list, for a while anyway, and consider some steps that will pay off all year, not just for a few sparkling moments in December.

The good news is that the sweeping reforms approved in 1997 have for the most part been phased in. While there isn't a lot that's new this year, lawmakers have plenty of big new ideas. They always do. Some want to lower the capital-gains tax rate, now 20% at the federal level for most people who hold an asset longer than one year. That's down from 28% a few years ago, and it could be pushed to 15%. Another hot topic is the so-called death tax. Republicans want to eliminate the tax on estates, which can reach rates as high as 55%.

Also in the taxman's sights is the marriage penalty, a quirky tax that means two-earner couples often pay more than single-earner couples, even though their household income may be the same--and way more than if the two-earner couple lived together unmarried.

Don't expect any of these things to kick in soon, though. Since next year is an election year and much of the rhetoric in Washington will be centered on how to save Social Security, tax experts say it's unlikely there will be any major tax changes before 2001. So plan around what's known--not what might happen. On these pages, we look at six ways to cut your taxes before Dec. 31. Generally, you'll want to reduce your taxable estate and income while maximizing your tax-deferred savings. Here's how:

THE JOY OF GIFTING

If generosity is its own reward, it's doubly gratifying to whittle down your taxable estate each year. The amount you can shelter from tax at death through the lifetime exclusion is rising, and will reach $2 million for a married couple ($1 million for an individual) in 2006, up from $1.3 million ($650,000 for an individual) in 1999. Sound tax planning can leave your estate at or just below those levels, minimizing the estate tax. Give $10,000 ($20,000 as a couple) to each heir. Such gifts can be made, tax-free, annually. If your estate is $3 million, you save $5,500 in estate tax every time you give away $10,000.

If you have a large estate, consider setting up a family limited partnership to accelerate gifting. By placing securities in such a partnership and naming yourself the general partner, you may be able to give away more, faster, notes Kevin Flatley, director of estate planning at BankBoston. Courts have consistently found that assets in such a partnership have less value because they are not liquid. Only the general partner can sell. So you may be able to gift up to $14,000 of stock this way and value it at only $10,000.