"Fiscal Cliff" Implications
 

This may not be the appropriate venue for this topic, but I thought I would try to share some information. Effective January 1, 2013, the maximum amount that can be excluded from estate taxes drops to one million dollars. Doesn't sound like a big deal until you consider the following scenario: FedEx Pilot with 800K in life insurance supplied by the company, 300K of supplemental life insurance and 500K in the 401. These can all be passed on to your spouse as your benficiary, thus avoiding probate and the estate tax. You assume that the Congress will fix this problem so you really don't need to worry. They haven't gotten to it by the end of the year, but they will as soon as they come back from the Holiday Recess. Lets say you are driving home from the neighbors house on New Years Eve (12:30 AM) and the local drunk plows in to you. You are pronounced dead at the scene. Your spouse hangs on until a few day later and then passes away. All of these funds passed to her just as you had wished; as your beneficiary. However, when she passed away, they were just cash assets in her estate. They, along with everything else you had (house, cars, savings, investments) would be subject to the 55% tax on everything over one million dollars.
There are two ways around this. First, you could name the kids as secondary beneficiaries. This would only help if you both passed away at the same time. The other way is to go to an estate planning attorney and have them draw up a Revocable Trust. You name the Revocable Trust as the beneficiary of all your assets (same for your spouse) and then it doesn't matter who passes away first. Everything is shielded from the estate tax.
For the FedEx guys, Hyatt Legal through Met Life covers the cost of doing this. Just some food for thought.

A question from a non Fed Ex pilot. Are the proceeds from life insurance considered as part of your taxable estate to the purpose of estate tax?. I thought that they were not subjected to estate taxes.

They are not subject to estate tax but in the scenario I used, they have passed to your spouse as life insurnace proceeds and when your spouse dies, they are now part of that estate. They do not remain life insurance proceeds forever.

But I'm still dead, right?

I feel no deal will be reached. The right will do all to prevent the tax increase for the 1% (job creators) in my opinion, and the left will do anything to tax the 1%. If the fiscal cliff happens, it just levels the playing field more. Might not affect the airlines, but it could and most likely affect the corporate sector.

Come on folks, the Federal Government knows what's good for us!:eek:

Watch out for the Alternative Minimum Tax for 2012 and beyond. It's a big deal.

Just met with a lawyer last night and he told me that with the new changes coming down the pipe anything over 1 mil in life insurance will be taxed upon distribution. He said the old rule was 5 mil.

Good thing I'm still a poor pilot.

If consumers are affected it will affect the airlines because the industry is consumer driven.

...and if the corporate sector is affected it will also affect the consumer. Do you really think the mean ol' corporations won't pass on the the additional cost?