What Is The Best Way To Avoid Estate Taxes?

Anderson Business Advisors Podcast

Today, attorneys Toby Mathis, Esq., and Eliot Thomas, Esq., answer listener questions with a focus on various strategies for minimizing estate and income taxes. You’ll hear about how to use non-profits or irrevocable trusts to avoid estate taxes, structuring an assisted care business with asset protection strategies, and setting up single-member LLCs taxed as S-Corps. For short-term rental tax deductions, it's clarified that a property can’t serve both vacation and business purposes. The questions also address investment in qualified opportunity zones or QOZ’s, 1099 tax options for truck drivers and other independent contractors, deducting home improvement costs, and alternatives to 1031 exchanges.
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Highlights/Topics:

• What is the best way to avoid estate tax? - Setting up a non-profit, or an irrevocable trust. Currently, only estates over $13 million get a federal tax
• I'm a nurse. I'm interested in starting an assisted care business in my home. Any recommendations to use for taxes or startup strategies? - Focus on asset protection - separate your building vs. operations in an LLC. You’ll need good insurance and other protections for anyone coming into your home.
• My wife has a single-member LLC engineering firm and it's taxed as an SCorp. I plan to open my own business. Would I be able to open my own single-member LLC tax as an S -Corp? My CPA advised me to run my business through hers so that only one 1120S is filed. - Yes to the SCorp and NO to running through your wife’s LLC. If you get sued someone can take everything from you.
• Can I use my vacation home as a short-term rental to tax write-off? So how do we do that? - it's either vacation or it's business, you don't do both, okay?
• I hear a lot about seven average days, but there is a lot of confusion behind those seven days. - The only reason there's confusion is because people don't know how to read the regs…
• I’ve realized capital gains from an installment sale in 2023. I've not received capital gains up to my basis yet. I will have a chunk every year up to the next five years. Can I still invest in a qualified opportunity zone? - QOZ’s are ending at the end of 2026
• I would like to focus on 1099-related options. I'm a truck driver, and I feel I'm paying very high taxes. - This is broader than just truckers, but don’t start a sole proprietorship, try a C or S- Corp to cut down employment taxes.
• Sold our investment property in 2023, which was previously our residence for 10 years. When we started renting out our property about five years ago, our CPA did not advise us on updating the cost basis because you don't. Right. We have done many upgrades to the house during the 10-year stay. So this year, when we file our taxes and report the sale, we will be using the initial cost basis for the home. My question is, any way to deduct the expenses we had when it was our residence? - See form 315 to capture that missed depreciation.
• I see different ads from others saying there are options other than a 1031 exchange to defer taxes. Looking for any viable options, please. - We can look for UPREITS, Umbrella, partnership, real estate investment trust, things like that.
• Being a senior over 70, I really enjoy the videos I watch on YouTube as it's never too late to learn and try to understand real estate investing in taxes. But even if I do pick up some of the things, I still would need experts to do the job for me. What would it cost for Anderson's group to follow my future investments? I want to do this for my daughter who is now in her second year of college. - If you want turn-key investing, come to infinity investing

Resources:

How to Avoid Taxes When Selling Your Rental Property
Infinity Investing
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