What is the death tax? Can I minimize the effect of the death tax through estate planning?
Death tax is actually a misnomer to the extent that it is an estate tax. When I say misnomer, I mean it’s misnamed.
Estate tax is what happens when an individual passes away and has an estate that is large enough to be taxed as an estate. That large estate would have to be, now, in the realm of $5 million. So therefore, if you do not have an estate that is worth $5 million and it’s less than that, you don’t have to worry about estate taxes because you won’t have a federal estate tax, and you will not have a state estate tax, and that a CPA would have to assist you with further.
