For the third consecutive year, Jennifer L. Kruszewski has had the privilege of co-presenting along with Jennifer Frank, Esq. of Lanman Rayne Nelson Reade at the Maine State Bar Association’s Legal Year in Review, covering the 2022 developments in Trusts & Estates Law.  Attorney Frank presented the 2022 developments in Elder Law.

Jennifer provided the following updates on key Federal and Maine estate tax numbers for 2023:

  1. 2023 Federal Estate,Gift and Generation-Skipping Tax Exemption Amount: $12,920,000.  This amount is portable between spouses for estate and gift tax purposes, but not for the GST tax.  The increased exemption amount will “sunset” as of December 31, 2025 and will return to an inflation-adjusted amount of approximately $7,000,000 in 2026.
  2. 2023 Maine Estate Tax Exemption Amount: $6,410,000.  The Maine exemption is not portable between spouses.  Maine does not have a gift tax, though it does include gifts made within 1 year of death in the gross estate.
  3. 2023 Gift Tax Exclusion: $17,000/donee

Some of the other highlights of Jennifer’s presentation include:

  1. Individuals now have 5 years to make a portability election on a Federal Estate Tax return if a return was not otherwise required.
  2. New Proposed Regulations related to retirement accounts under the SECURE Act, including the operation of the new “10-year rule” and the importance of strucuring Supplemental Needs Trust as a Type II “applicable multi-beneficiary trust” or “AMBT.”
  3. New Proposed Regulations addressing the valuation of interest and deductions in the context of estates under Section 2053 of the Code, as well as substantiation requirements for valuation of deduction of uncertain claims.
  4. New business reporting requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act.  The CTA is designed to fight terrorism and other financial crimes, and it sets forth reporting requirements that will require companies to disclose to FinCEN certain company information, information regarding beneficial owners of the company, and information regarding those involved in the process of forming the company and applying for its formation.