Leaderboard

Some states are suing over the legality of capping the deduction. Will be interesting to see how the courts rule and why.

I think IRS will shoot it down fairly easily, but it is creative.

They have improved the idea. What is now being proposed is a California Tax Credit for 100% of your contribution to a new state "Charity". The State will set up the "charity", accept your "Donation" of the amount of your state and local taxes, and give you a 100% credit (refundable) on your CA tax return, along with a donation receipt for you to use on your Federal Tax Return. It is definitely creative. I really want to go political on this thread but I don't want to get kicked off the board, I need you guys too much. Tom Modesto, CA

Except... ATX never has business returns ready that early. Some of the state business returns aren't ready until February. It doesn't excite me to just do the federal return and have to go back later to do the state return.

There's no need for the husband to gift the shares to his wife before it ultimately is gifted to the son. Even if the shares are solely in his name, he can gift shares directly to his son and elect to gift splitting the gift with his wife. It's as if husband gifted shares to the wife first without having to actually go through that step. If the total value of the gift is less than $30K, meaning with gift splitting that each gives an amount that is equal or less than the annual exclusion of $15K for 2018, then only one gift tax return is required with the split being reported all on the one return. If the combined total value of the split gifts exceeds the combined total of their annual exclusions, again the $30K, then each will file a gift tax return that reports the gift splitting, and it will also report how much of their share of the unified credit will be used to offset the excess of each of their gifts that exceeds the annual exclusion. Per the from 709 instructions, both returns should be mailed in the same envelope so that they are processed at the same time.