Till Death (And Qualified Trusts) Do Us Part
The overarching policy of the estate tax regime in the United States can largely be summed up as follows: Assets should be taxed once at each generation. In developing the sections of the Internal Revenue Code that govern the estate tax, Congress has also made clear that spouses are considered to be in the same generation, regardless of age. This is grounded in another tenet of U.S. tax policy that treats spouses as one economic unit. Since 1981, the Internal Revenue Code has permitted unlimited, tax-free transfers between spouses. That same year, Congress also enacted an exception to t...
Source: wealthmanagement.com