Small Business Taxes For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 5

Estate Planning

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding the estate tax rules that may affect your situation and small business

Reducing your estate’s tax burden and planning for your business’s future

Among the dreariest of tax and financial topics is the issue of what happens to your assets when you pass away. Depending on how your finances are structured and when you die, you (actually, your estate) may get socked with estate taxes.

Unfortunately, you can’t predict when the grim reaper will pay a visit. That doesn’t mean, however, that you need to participate in complicated and costly estate planning. To the contrary, especially when your assets are modest, a few simple moves may be all you need.

In this chapter, I discuss how the estate tax system works (especially at the federal level), the particular issues that may affect your small business, and the strategies you may consider to reduce the possibility of future estate taxes hitting your assets.

Estate planning takes time and money, which are precious commodities for most people. Whether spending your time and money on estate planning is worthwhile depends on your personal and financial circumstances, both now and in the ...