On May 20, 2014, declared that Pennsylvania’s laws banning same sex marriage was unconstitutional. Besides the practical implication that same sex couples in Pennsylvania may now get married, it also means that when one spouse dies, the survivor can now inherit tax free. Previously, only a heterosexual surviving spouse could inherit assets of the deceased spouse […]
Effective today, same sex marriage is now legal in New Jersey after Governor Chris Christie dropped his plans to appeal the ruling of Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson. On September 27, 2013, Judge Jacobson had ruled that New Jersey must allow same sex marriages in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. […]
Yesterday the Internal Revenue Service issued an important ruling in the wake of the Windsor case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. Specifically the IRS stated that it will recognize all same sex marriages regardless of where the couple was married. The Supreme Court did not specifically address what would […]
After scrutinizing the United States v. Windsor decision yesterday a little more thoroughly, it occurs to me that same sex couples in New Jersey are still a state of limbo. It should be noted that the Supreme Court relied on the fact that the couple in the Windsor case not only were legally married in Canada, but […]
In a landmark Supreme Court case today, United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) was unconstitutional. DOMA was signed into law in 1996 and defined marriage as between a man and a woman for purposes of federal law. Importantly, this meant that same sex couples could not […]
It occurs to me that other than a few minor modifications to the federal estate tax rate, very little has changed with respect to the law as it existed in 2012. This means that estate tax portability is here to stay. Portability is the term given when a surviving spouse receives a deceased spouse’s unused […]
There was a significant court decision back in June of this year regarding the rights of same sex married couples. The New York Federal Court concluded that the surviving spouse of a same sex married couple is entitled to an unlimited marital deduction for purposes of federal estate taxes. Windsor v. U.S., 109 AFTR 2d […]
Prior to discussing estate planning for non-traditional couples, it is important to understand that we agree on a common definition for a traditional couple. The notion of a “traditional couple” has advanced over recent years. Until as recently as 2015, same-sex couples could not legally marry, which from an estate planning perspective, meant that a […]
Some states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, have an inheritance tax. Other states, like Florida and New York, do not have an inheritance tax. An inheritance tax is a tax on the person who receives money from a decedent. The inheritance tax rate itself depends upon the relationship between the person receiving the money and […]