Mastering GST Elections and Reporting: Minimizing Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Through Indirect Skips

This course will provide tax advisers with a comprehensive and practical guide to generation-skipping transfer (GST) election strategies and the tax reporting mechanics of calculating GST taxes. The panel will offer specific guidance on reporting GSTs under various transfer scenarios. The panel will also outline the available elections and exemption provisions to minimize GST impact and avoid costly penalties.

A significant and often complex challenge for estate advisers and compliance professionals is navigating the GST tax rules. Quite often, a taxpayer will transfer property to a "skip person" inadvertently. Then, the tax adviser discovers the transfer when a tax return is due, or in many cases, does not discover the transfer until after the due date by which GST reporting was required. There are, however, several elections available to taxpayers that may mitigate some GST tax.

In addition to identifying transfers to a skip person or a trust for the benefit of a skip person, tax advisers need to know how much of the taxpayer's GST exemption has been used and calculate exemption allocations for GST purposes on Form 709. Advisers must also understand when to opt out of the automatic allocation rules and contemplate making a reverse QTIP election. In addition, understanding the process for obtaining Section 9100 relief to allocate GST exemptions can provide crucial benefits to taxpayers caught up in the GST regime.

Listen as our experienced panel provides practical guidance on allocating GST exemptions and on the elections available to tax advisers and compliance professionals to minimize the tax impact of GST tax.