Estate Taxes
With the significant increase in the federal estate tax exemption in recent years, the focus for many clients has turned from estate tax planning to income tax planning.
Fifteen years ago the estate tax exclusion amount was $675,000. Today the federal exemption is $5.43 million and in 2016 will be $5.45 million. The Illinois estate tax exemption, however, is stuck at $4 million, which is still sufficiently high to allow most decedent’s estates to avoid filing an estate tax return and paying the estate tax.