Do bequeaths to charities in a will reduce the estate for estate tax purposes, or do they come after the estate tax.
Although I am fine now, there is hopefully a possibility I will break into having to pay NYS estate tax, and that is a serious problem. So could I put a clause in that gives enough to charity to avoid that?
(or if you know of a website with other strategies along this line...)
Thanks
For federal tax purposes, gifts to qualified charities can be elected to reduce either the estate's income tax or estate tax, but not both.
I don't practice in NY, so we will have to wait for someone who knows about NY tax law to come along. But my guess is that gifts to qualified charities will reduce the estate for state estate taxes as well.
Just to clarify... NY has a cliff deduction. If you estate is below the deduction you pay no tax. If it is over the deduction you pay tax on the entire estate and lose the deduction completely. I want to put a charity bequest in that would drop my estate below losing the deduction.
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