OPEN finance expert Mike Periu on how to protect your state and ways to get around the impending estate tax increases.
As we approach January 1, 2013, it seems less likely that we will have a solution to the fiscal cliff. One of the biggest impacts to small-business owners will be change to the gift and estate tax exemption. Current law allows you to gift and bequeath a total of $5.1 million to your heirs without paying any estate taxes. In 2013, this exemption limit is reduced drastically to only $1 million. Amounts above this limit will be taxed at 55 percent. To minimize this massive tax bite, you need to lower the value of your estate at the time of your death. Some strategies to achieve this include gifting stock (instead of cash); making annual tax-free gifts to your heirs, starting now; and sheltering assets through a trust.
About small business finance expert Mike Periu
Mike Periu has experience in small business finance. He founded Proximo, LLC a company that offers consumer and small business training services focused on technology and money.
Mike Periu teaches individual empowerment through entrepreneurship and financial literacy. He has appeared 500+ times on television and radio. Visit the Reach and Media pages of his website to learn more about where he has appeared.
You can read more of Mike’s articles on his blog or at American Express OpenForum, Yahoo! Finanzas and the Huffington Post.
Mike has a degree in International Business and Finance which he received at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He received a Fellowship from the Kauffman Foundation for the Labs for Enterprise Creation program in Kansas City.
