New provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 2010 allow a spouse to pass along any unused portion of a $5 million estate and gift tax exclusion to the
surviving spouse.
If a decedent directs his executor or a trustee to buy a nonrefund life annuity for his
surviving spouse, will the annuity qualify for the marital deduction?
The analysis is not straightforward, but in many cases it will be better to break the trust and treat the assets as though they were transferred to the
surviving spouse.
In this scenario, the CST purchases life insurance on the life of the
surviving spouse.
A
surviving spouse can be eligible for their deceased partner's full Social Security benefit, but when he or she claims that benefit is a major factor in how large those monthly checks are.
A new IRA affords the spouse the opportunity to restart and "stretch out" the required minimum distributions to a later required beginning date (April 1 of the year following the year that the
surviving spouse attained the age of 701/2).
Because a
surviving spouse has no DSUE from a deceased spouse to apply to the
surviving spouse's transfers until the portability election has been made by the deceased spouse's executor, a refund claim within the SOL by the
surviving spouse or the
surviving spouse's estate in anticipation of Form 706 being filed to elect portability pursuant to Rev.
Provided even further, that if the Judge or Justice is killed due to his/her work, the Judge or Justice or their
surviving spouse and children, shall receive all the benefits provided above which are applicable plus a gratuity equivalent to 10 years salary, lump sum to be computed based on all the salaries, benefits and the like, given to an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Marcos had also been receiving P20,000 monthly from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as a
surviving spouse of a Medal of Valor awardee.
The rules, however, are not straightforward and differ depending on whether the ISAs held by the deceased spouse were in cash or non-cash assets (typically stocks and shares): Cash ISAs | For cash ISAs, the equivalent value to the ISA accounts held by the deceased at the date of their death is available to be invested by the
surviving spouse, whether or not the account is left to them.
On the first spouse's death, if the deceased spouse has not used all of his estate tax exclusion, the
surviving spouse may, under the new portability concept, be permitted to take advantage of that unused exemption.
For example, all future appreciation in the value of assets in a bypass trust is sheltered from estate tax in the
surviving spouse's estate, which is not true of assets that pass to a
surviving spouse via portability.
