Strategies to minimize taxes are an important component of any well-designed estate or asset protection plan. You don’t want to pay too much in taxes—nobody does. For high net worth families, an effective plan to minimize income, capital gains and local taxes is absolutely critical. After all, wealthy families have much more to lose, and gain, through a smartly conceived and well-designed tax minimization plan.
Additionally, in today’s political climate of ever-changing income, business and estate tax laws, incorporating effective tax planning strategies in your wealth, asset protection and tax plan is more difficult than ever. Consider this, for example: Uncertainties surround Pres. Trump’s tax proposals, including “estate tax elimination”. Congressional reexamination of the estate tax illustrates the complex, confusing and uncertain nature of the financial world we live in.
At Christine C. Weiner, as Irvine tax planning attorneys, we are skilled and experienced in all areas of tax planning. We can make sure you do not pay too much in taxes while you are alive, and protect your estate from being ravaged by estate taxes after you are gone. The result? More of your hard-earned assets are available for the people and organizations that have come to mean the most to you over the course of your life.
In today’s high taxation environment, we can help you analyze whether you are paying too much in income or business taxes. Our approach to minimizing your tax burden is twofold: freezing and fractionalizing. We can freeze the value of your estate so that as your assets appreciate, no additional taxes will be owed on that appreciation. Tools to accomplish this goal include GRATS, QPRTS, Private Annuities and Installment Notes. As for fractionalizing, this involves splitting ownership interests in various assets, allowing the assets’ overall value to be lowered for tax purposes. Strategies and techniques to accomplish fractionalization include Lifetime Gifting, Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs) and Limited Liability Companies (LLCs).
As with all areas of our practice, we welcome the opportunity to work closely with your existing advisors to ensure you pay the least amount possible in taxes. Contact us today to learn how we can help you preserve more of your assets for your enjoyment and that of the people and institutions you care about most. Today, tomorrow, and beyond.