Canadian taxpayers are accustomed to receiving a notice of assessment after filing a tax return. In the federal context, a Notice of Assessment, is a statement from the Canada Revenue Agency notifying the taxpayer of among other items the amount of tax they owe, if any, the amount of tax already paid, if any, and tax credits received.
What if that return was a U. S. estate tax return to report an interest in U. S. situs property?
The Huffington Post reports that over a third of foreign buyers of real estate in Florida are Canadians. Another article reports that Canadians are the leading buyers of US real estate. In earlier blogs I’ve talked about the specter of US estate taxes that arises when a Canadian dies owning US situs property, like real estate. Besides this complexity, the ownership of foreign property raises the potential for challenges in the administration of an estate. As a result, when developing an estate plan that includes foreign real estate it is important to consider a number of issues, some of which are…
Almost six years after her death, the estate of civil rights hero Rosa Parks is still being litigated. Court pleadings recently filed with the Michigan Supreme Court reveal details over the fight for control over her estate.
As world attention appears to be increasingly focused on the economic news coming from the United States, and the various political debates in that country regarding deficit reduction and tax policy, I thought it would be interesting and timely to draw readers attention to a recent Reuters article that profiles a leader of the U.S. political movement to repeal estate taxes.
Huguette Clark died on May 24, 2011 in New York city at the age of 104. A hospital served as her residence for the last 20 years. Her estate is estimated to be about $500 million.
There is no global test for capacity. Capacity is a task specific concept. The threshold capacity for making a Will is not necessarily the same as may be required for managing a simple bank account or for providing investment instructions in respect of a multi-million dollar portfolio. What should we be looking for when dealing with older clients wishing to prepare a Will?
If you have a “single-purpose” corporation for U.S. estate tax planning, this may be a good time to explore an alternative way of holding U.S. real estate.
So you’ve taken on the role of executor of your dear friend, Sally’s estate. It just so happened that Sally owned a vacation property in the United States. You’ve come across a couple of blogs in the last few weeks that suggest her estate may owe some taxes to the IRS. You have no idea whether this is true and what you may need to do. You decide to keep reading these blogs to see if they’ll help you.
In my Blog of October 26, 2010, I described how the U.S. estate tax regime was in a state of flux. Without action by Congress before the end of 2010, U.S. estate taxes are set to revert back to the rates and exempt amount in effect in 2001.
So you are a Canadian citizen and resident, surely ‘Uncle Sam’ has no right to your Estate on your death. Unfortunately ‘Uncle Sam’s’ arm – his estate tax arm that is – can reach across the border to impose taxes on the Estate of a non-resident/non-citizen of the United States.
