The IRS has a unified wealth transfer taxation system to ensure that any assets transferred by means of gifts, deaths, and gifts that skip a generation are taxed accordingly. This course will discuss estate planning and estate taxes, gift taxes, and generation-skipping transfer taxes in detail. This course will describe the tools that are available for estate planning and will define the benefits of using each tool. This course will describe how to identify what is included in the gross estate and demonstrate how to calculate the gross estate amounts. This course will also identify the conditions under which filing a gift tax return is required. Finally, this course will identify and discuss the different types of generation-skipping transfers and how each is taxed by the IRS. This course has been updated to reflect all current changes to tax law and amounts for 2023.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students will be

• Describe estate taxes and the purpose of estate taxes according to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC),
• Identify the various types of trusts that can be used for estate planning,
• Recognize what is included in the gross estate of a decedent,
• Calculate the gross estate of a decedent,
• Recognize the various deductions and credits available when calculating the gross estate of a decedent, and
• Describe the purpose of Generation Skipping Transfers and the Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax according to the IRC.