Question

Mr. Bailey would like to gift $515,000 (FMV) of appreciated property (basis $200,000) to his son. Mr. Bailey doesn't want to use his liquid assets to pay the gift tax (40%). He already has gifted $11,400,000. What would you suggest?

Answer 1

Answer:

He should set a grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT).

Explanation:

Mr. Bailey would be the grantor that transfers the asset into the GRAT, but retains the right to receive annuity payments for a number of years. The IRS has set a minimum annuity corresponding to the Section 7520 rate, during the last two years the rate has varied from 2-3%. When the trust expires (pays all the annuities), the beneficiary gets the asset tax free.

Since the grantor is giving up an asset but in exchange is receiving an annuity form it, there is no applicable gift tax, it is called a zeroed-out GRAT.

This type of grant makes sense only if the grantor believes that the future value of the asset will be higher than the current value, since the annuity is based on the current value. In this case, Mr. Bailey would receive payments based on a $200,000 value, but the property's fair market value is already higher and should increase as time passes.