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?
Category: US Taxes
Total 37 Posts
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.
As the thermometer continues to hover around the zero degree mark, many of us who live north of the 49th parallel begin to think about heading south to take up residence in one of the many sunnier climes the United States has to offer.
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.
Further to my colleague Corina Weigl’s discussion of U.S. estate taxes, I thought readers might be interested in a U.S. constitutional litigation that has been launched in response to the U.S. estate tax burden borne by the survivor of a same-sex marriage.
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.