Estate & Trust Administration For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 16

Preparing the Estate Tax Return, Part 1

IN THIS CHAPTER

Determining whether your estate needs to file

Filling out pages 1–4 of the estate tax return

Deciding which elections to take

Taking the final steps after you’ve filed the return

“Nothing’s certain in life apart from death and taxes.” Ben Franklin said it, and it’s generally true. Although death is unfortunately inevitable, the federal estate tax isn’t if the decedent’s estate (the property owned by the deceased person on his or her date of death) is small enough. For decedents passing away in 2013, the amount exempt from federal estate tax is $5.25 million ($5 million indexed annually for inflation).

The federal estate tax, sometimes mistakenly referred to as the death tax, is a tax on the value of all the decedent’s property at the date of death, minus any amounts owed by the decedent but unpaid at that time, funeral costs, and the costs of administering the estate. It’s not a tax on a share received by any particular beneficiary, and no beneficiary pays any gift or estate tax on what he or she receives. The executor ...