Something to Keep Busy With

Very brief post on Passive Activities and Other Oxymorons on December 19, 2010.  Quite prescient is my noticing an article by Janet Novack, who six months later would accept me as a forbes.com contributor and has been my editor since.
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The tax compromise that is closing out the year doesn't really seem all that exciting.  The tax rates next year will be pretty much unchanged.  The estate tax change is significant, but it seems like you can wait to do whatever seems best next year.  For a small group of people though the bill confirmed an opportunity that will vanish at the end of the year.

For 2010, there is a generation skipping tax in effect, but the rate is 0.  So trusts that have non-exempt portions may want to trigger the 0% tax in the next two weeks.  An article by Janet Novack in Forbes explains the issue in detail.  I give myself credit for noticing this as I was studying the bill but I figured there was some sort of language I wasn't seeing that would knock out transfers at the end of the year.  I discussed it with an attorney though and he pointed me to the Forbes article.