Foundations Of Preparing Form 706 And 709: The Federal Estate And Gift Tax Return

Tax compliance issues in estate and gift taxation are sometimes confusing to practitioners because many lack experiences in this area. This course provides the practitioner with a practical understanding of Federal estate and gift tax law. The course will examine in detail Forms 706 and 709, section by section, and will address how each form must be prepared. It will also present planning suggestions to minimize taxation wherever possible.

Foundations of Preparing Form 706: The Federal Estate Tax Return

The executor of a decedent's estate uses Form 706 to figure the estate tax imposed by Chapter 11 of the Internal Revenue Code, and, also used to compute the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax imposed by Chapter 13 on direct skips. This form is a complicated return to prepare, running more than 25 pages with more than 15 schedules.

Session Highlights:

• Learn how to prepare each schedule to the Form 706, using a sample return as an illustration.
• Identify the six major components of Form 706 and Identify compliance issues.
• Identify how to determine estate tax liability
• Recognize the only action required to elect portability
• Recognize the importance of the information items and questions on Form 706.
• Highlights of portability elections to make the deceased spousal unused exclusion amount (DSUA) available to the surviving spouse.
• Understand proper asset valuation compliance.
• Understand proper deduction compliance.
• Understand tax calculation.
• The ins and outs of the “portability” rules, including how the rules actually work using common examples.
• Issues involved in the preparation of the decedent’s final federal income tax return (Form 1040).
• Various postmortem estate planning issues involved in the preparation of the.
• above-mentioned tax return.
• Complete understanding of estate and gift taxation.
• Income tax consequences.
• Overlooked GST issues.

Preparing Form 709: The Federal Gift Tax Return

The federal gift tax often comes as a surprise to clients who want to transfer wealth to family members. Oft ignored by the unwitting taxpayer and overlooked by the practitioner, gift tax returns are left unfiled.  Find out when these returns are due and how to prepare them. This course will take an in-depth look at a hypothetical client who has made multiple gifts over a period of years, and now seeks your help to comply with all tax reporting requirements.

Session Highlights:

• Describe what the federal gift tax is and how it works
• Identify transfers that are subject to the gift tax and which are not
• Explain key compliance and reporting requirements for the gift tax
• Identify planning opportunities with the gift tax
• What are the filing requirements for Form 709? Who is liable for the tax?
• How does the gift tax impact the estate & GST tax regimes?
• How is the tax computed? What taxpayer information is needed?
• Identify which gifts are subject to tax.

Who Will Benefit:

CPA
Enrolled Agents (EAs)
Tax Professionals
Attorneys
Other Tax Preparers
Finance professionals
Financial planners

Speaker Profile:
Steven Siegel is president of The Siegel Group, which provides consulting services to attorneys, accountants, business owners, family offices and financial planners. Based in Morristown, New Jersey, the Group provides services throughout the United States.

Mr. Siegel is the author of many books, including: The Grantor Trust Answer Book (2020 Leimberg Information Systems); The Adviser’s Guide to Financial and Estate Planning (AICPA 2020); Federal Fiduciary Income Taxation (Foxmoor 2020); Understanding the Federal Gift Tax (Leimberg Information Systems (2021)Federal Estate and Gift Tax (Foxmoor 2016)). He is co-author of Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates, (Carolina Press 2020). He is the co-author with Richard Oshins, Esq. of The Anatomy of the Perfect Modern Trust, Estate Planning Magazine, January and February 2016.