Estate Planning, Family Law, Trust Administration, and Probate in Santa Barbara County

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Posts tagged Taxes
Tax Planning Starts Now: 8 Things To Do Now to Lower Your 2024 Taxes - Part 1

It might seem a bit early to think about your 2024 taxes, but as the time for paying 2023 taxes comes to a close, it's the perfect time to take a closer look at your financial situation and make some strategic moves that can help you minimize your tax liability for this year.

Year-end tax planning isn't something you do at the last minute; it's a series of thoughtful steps you can start taking right now. In two segments, we’ll explain eight key actions you can take during this year to save money on your 2024 taxes.

Let’s get started.

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What the National Debt Ceiling Extension Means for Your Family

You’ve probably heard about the national debt ceiling and its recent extension, but you might wonder what it has to do with your everyday life as a family. While it may seem like a distant matter, the national debt ceiling extension can have a significant impact on your family's financial well-being and future planning. 

So what exactly is the national debt ceiling extension? 

The national debt ceiling is a legal limit set on the amount of money the government can borrow to finance its operations and meet its financial obligations domestically and around the globe. When the government reaches this limit, it cannot borrow more money unless Congress raises or extends the country’s debt ceiling. If the ceiling isn’t raised and the United States can’t pay back its debts, the country’s global creditworthiness is affected as well as financial security abroad and at home.

The National Debt is currently at the tune of $32 trillion with no current substantive or reasonable plan of paying it back. Instead, Congress raised the national debt ceiling on June 3, 2023, which means the United States will not default on its loans. This is good news in one sense but bad news in another. It’s certainly important to understand how the extension of the debt ceiling can still affect the economy and your family. 

Here’s how the national debt ceiling extension can affect the economy, and your family, and what you can do to mitigate the impacts.

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How Do Trusts Help You Save on Taxes?

Many people come to us curious (or confused) about trusts and taxes. So today’s article is going to sort it out and clarify things for you.

There are two major types of trusts, and each has different tax consequences.

INCOME TAXES

Revocable trusts, which are the far more commonly used trusts, have no immediate tax consequences whatsoever. A revocable trust has your social security number as its tax identifier, and is not a separate entity from you for tax purposes. It is a separate entity from you for purposes of probate, meaning if you become incapacitated or die your Trustee can take over without a court order, keeping your family out of court. But, until your death, it’s treated as invisible from a tax perspective. At the time of your death, if your revocable trust provides for the creation of irrevocable trusts, then the tax implications will shift.

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Probate: What It Is & How To Avoid It — Part 1

Unless you’ve created a proper estate plan, when you die many of your assets must first pass through the court process known as probate before those assets can be distributed to your heirs. Like most court proceedings, probate can be time-consuming, costly, and open to the public, and because of this, avoiding probate — and keeping your family out of court — is a central goal of most estate plans. 

During probate, the court supervises a number of different legal actions, all of which are aimed at finalizing your affairs and settling your estate. Although we’ll discuss them more in-depth below, probate typically consists of the following processes:

  • Determining the validity of your will (if you have one).

  • Appointing an executor or administrator to manage the probate process and settle your estate.

  • Locating and valuing all of your assets.

  • Notifying & paying your creditors.

  • Filing & paying your taxes.

  • Distributing your assets to the appropriate beneficiaries.

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Three Reasons Why Transferring Ownership of your Home to your Children is a Bad Idea

Whether it’s to qualify for Medicaid, avoid probate, or reduce your tax burden, transferring ownership of your home to your adult child during your lifetime may seem like a smart move. But in nearly all cases, it’s actually a huge mistake, which can lead to dire consequences for everyone involved. 

With this in mind, before you sign over the title to your family’s beloved homestead, consider the following potential risks. 

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Three Critical Considerations For How to Save For Your Child's (or Grandchild's) College Education - Part 2

If you have started to save for your child or grandchild’s college education, it’s worth considering whether to use a 529 plan, an education savings account, or an irrevocable education trust. 

Yesterday, in part one of this series, we discussed 529 plans and education savings accounts, which are both popular options for saving for college education. One of the main reasons for their popularity is their tax-saving advantages. The money you contribute to a 529 account grows on a tax-deferred basis, and withdrawals are tax-free, provided they are used for qualified education expenses, such as tuition, room and board, and other education-related fees. 

That said, one of the downsides of 529 plans is that they come with strict limits on how you can use the funds (for education-related expenses only), and they also have a limited range of options for how you can invest your funds, primarily in various mutual funds. For these reasons, 529 plans and ESAs aren’t always the best fit for some families looking to save for their loved ones’ education.

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Trusts & Taxes: What You Need to Know

People often come to us curious — or confused — about the role trusts play in saving on taxes. Given how frequently this issue comes up, here we’re going to explain the tax implications associated with different types of trusts in order to clarify this issue. Of course, if you need further clarification about trusts, taxes, or any other issue related to estate planning, meet with our Personal Family Lawyer® for additional guidance.

TWO TYPES OF TRUSTS

There are two primary types of trusts — revocable living trusts and irrevocable trusts — and each one comes with different tax consequences.

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