The clock’s ticking for wealthy clients looking to find tax advantages when transferring assets to the next generation or selling their business—especially considering the looming, potentially watershed election.
“With a possible administration change and proposed changes to the capital gains rate, it might be wise to complete the transfer prior to year’s end,” said Julia Carlson, CEO and founder of Oregon-based Financial Freedom Wealth Management Group.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s tax plans include bumps in the top tax rate and lifting the Social Security taxable wage base cap on high earners. President Donald Trump’s plan seems fixed on extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act provisions beyond 2025, potentially meaning lower individual income tax rates. The candidates have reportedly failed to address in detail what one expert called “quiet levers” of wealth transfer, such as estate transfer tax rates, decreased lifetime estate and gift tax exemptions, among other factors.
For additional reasons beyond the election, “this may be the most opportune time for wealth transfer in recent memory,” said Joe Roberts, senior vice president and senior wealth strategist at Rockefeller Capital Management in Philadelphia. “We have the highest estate tax exemption and the lowest intra-family interest rates in history. That combination alone is significant, but layer in the knowledge that estate and gift tax exemptions may be lower next year and business valuations might be depressed by the current economic environment, and you have an opportune moment.”
That moment is a product of big current events. “The combination of lower valuations tied to the pandemic, lower interest rates and the uncertainty as to whether the current high lifetime gift tax exemption of $11.58 million will continue to be available, given the election year, make the remainder of this year an ideal time for succession planning,” said Deepa Menon, managing director in CBIZ Valuation Group in Dallas.
Daniel Gibson, tax partner at EisnerAmper in Iselin, N.J., said that transfers to younger family members can generally accomplish two tax plusses: income generated by these assets can be shifted to individuals with a lower tax rate, and moving assets to other family members can be a part of lowering estate taxes.
Keep in mind that there’s an interplay between assets transferred and their cost basis. “Assets transferred during the life of an owner may be lower than at the owner’s death, when the cost basis normally is stepped up to fair market,” Gibson said.
Of course, time-tested conventional wisdom for wealth transfer still applies in any season. “While gifting today can create tax savings, the younger generation may not be prepared to handle such a gift,” said Cindy Ostrager, managing director, director of tax at Clarfeld Citizens Private Wealth in Tarrytown, N.Y. “Using trusts can help prevent beneficiaries from getting more than they can handle.”
“The biggest thing we’re hearing from business buyers and sellers right now is uncertainty with [taxes] due to the pending election,” she added.
Menon noted that Biden’s proposals to increase the corporate tax rate to 28% and perhaps extinguish the bonus depreciation included in the 2017 tax law could lead companies with gains to sell their assets before the year ends to lock in the lower corporate rate.
“Other companies may be interested in buying assets during the same time to take advantage of bonus depreciation, which may be on the chopping block for a potential Biden administration,” Menon said. “Still others with high incomes and capital gains may be motivated to recognize their assets this year to avoid incurring a higher capital gains rate.”