Taxes on Life Insurance?

When people purchase life insurance policies, they designate a beneficiary who will benefit from the policy’s proceeds. When the insured person dies, the policy’s beneficiary then receives a payout known as the death benefit.

Yahoo Finance’s recent article entitled “Will My Beneficiaries Pay Taxes on Life Insurance?” says the big advantage of buying a life insurance policy is that, upon death, your beneficiaries can get a substantial lump sum payment without taxation, unless the amount of the life insurance pushes your estate above the applicable federal estate tax exemption. In that case, your estate will need to pay the tax.

While death benefits are usually tax-free, there are a few situations where the beneficiary of a life insurance policy may have to pay taxes on the lump sum payout. When you earn income from interest, it’s typically taxable. Therefore, if the beneficiary decides to delay the payout instead of receiving it right away, the death benefit may continue to accumulate interest. The death benefit won’t be taxed. However, the beneficiary will typically pay taxes on the additional interest.

So, for example, if the decedent had an insurance policy with a $200,000 death benefit which pays to their daughter at death. The daughter submits a claim after the parent dies and receives $200,736. The $736 is interest generated on the amount of money held by the company post­ death until pay out. The death benefit of $200,000 is not taxable, but the $736 is income taxable as interest, just as though the beneficiary has held the $200,000 in a bank somewhere and generated $736 in interest.

Additionally, the value of the insurance policy is subject to estate tax in most cases. This is true for typical insurance policies where an individual owns a policy on their own life and the proceeds pay out at death (e.g. the $200,000 policy described above). The value of the insurance increases the size of your estate so that if your estate excludes your applicable gift and estate tax exclusion amount (currently about $13,000,000) then your estate will have estate tax to pay.

This obviously doesn’t affect too many people, but many term policies can dramatically increase estate sizes due to their high death benefits.  Some states also have their own inheritance or estate taxes to consider.

Estate planning attorneys, especially when the estate tax exemptions were lower, frequently used life insurance trusts, often called “ILITs” or “Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts,” to combat this. As the estate tax exemption is currently expected to be cut in half in 2026, these kinds of trusts make sense to use now so that the value of the insurance is removed from your estate in anticipation of a lower exemption.  They work because the client doesn’t have ownership of the insurance policy. It is owned and maintained by the trust without any “incidences of ownership” so that the policy is not considered controlled by the decedent. They will often pay money to the trust which will in turn pay the insurance premiums during life.

I often recommend this to younger clients who are considering life insurance. They may never expect to be estate taxable, but as we don’t know what the future holds, or where politics will take us, we can remove the insurance from their estates now and so not worry about it.

If you want to know more about how life insurance impacts your estate plan, see this article:  https://galligan-law.com/role-of-insurance-in-estate-planning/

As a warning, I’m referring to taxation of life insurance at death. Transferring the policy, withdrawing money or taking a loan from the cash value and surrendering the policy can all have taxable components, so you would want to consult a CPA or attorney on the tax implications before proceeding.

To summarize, beneficiaries usually won’t have to pay taxes on life insurance proceeds. However, some situations can result in a taxable event and in some cases can be planned for in advance.

Reference: Yahoo Finance (Jan. 17, 2023) “Will My Beneficiaries Pay Taxes on Life Insurance?”

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Benefits of 529 Plans

529 Plans have benefits beyond tax-deferred earnings which make them attractive options for educational funding.

I’ve been discussing 529 plans, how they work and their benefits far more frequently with clients than I used to.  You might think that tax-deferred savings is the main benefit, along with tax-free withdrawals for qualifying higher education expenses in 529 plans. However, there are also state tax incentives, such as tax deductions, credits, grants, or exemption from financial aid consideration from in-state schools in certain states.  Forbes’ recent article entitled “7 Benefits You Didn’t Know About 529 College Savings Plans (But Should)” says there are many more advantages to the college savings programs than simple tax benefits.

1) Registered Apprenticeship Programs Qualify. You can make qualified withdrawals from a 529 plan for registered apprenticeship programs. These programs cover a wide range of areas with an average annual salary for those that complete their apprenticeship of $70,000.

2) International Schools Usually Qualify. More than 400 schools outside of the US are considered to be qualified higher education institutions. You can, therefore, make tax-free withdrawals from 529 plans for qualifying expenses at those colleges.

3) Gap Year and College Credit Classes for High School. Some gap year programs have partnered with higher education institutions to qualify for funding from 529 accounts. This includes some international and domestic gap year, outdoor education, study-abroad, wilderness survival, sustainable living trades and art programs. Primary school students over 14 can also use 529 plans for college credit classes, where available.

4) Get Your Money Back if Not Going to College. If your beneficiary meets certain criteria, it’s possible to avoid a 10% penalty and changing the plan from tax-free to tax-deferred. For this to happen, the beneficiary must:

  • Receive a tax-free scholarship or grant
  • Attend a US military academy
  • Die or become disabled; or
  • Get assistance through a qualifying employer-assisted college savings program.

Note that 529 plans are technically revocable. Therefore, you can rescind the gift and pull the assets back into the estate of the account owner. However, there are tax consequences, including tax on earnings plus a 10% penalty tax.

5) Private K–12 Tuition Is Qualified. 529 withdrawals can be used for up to $10,000 of tuition expenses at private K–12 schools. However, other expenses, such as computers, supplies, travel and other costs are not qualified.

6) Pay Off Your Student Loans. If you graduate with some money leftover in a 529 account, it can be used for up to $10,000 in certain student loan repayments.

7) Estate Planning. Contributions to a 529 plan are completed gifts to the beneficiary. These can be “superfunded” for up to $75,000 per beneficiary in a single year, effectively using five years’ worth of annual gift tax exemption up front. For retirees with significant RMDs (required minimum distributions) from qualified accounts, such as 401(k)s and traditional IRAs, the 529 plan offers high contribution limits across multiple beneficiaries, while retaining control of the assets during the lifetime of the account owner. Assets also pass by contract upon death, avoiding probate and estate tax.

7.5) Medicaid Benefit.  I’m going to cheat and add one more.  In Texas, transfers to 529 plans for CERTAIN beneficiaries are exempt as transactions for longterm Medicaid.  As with all Medicaid planning, you would want to do this at the advice of an attorney, but for situations where it fits, it is a very powerful spend down tool, especially where grandchildren are school age.

Reference: Forbes (July 15, 2021) “7 Benefits You Didn’t Know About 529 College Savings Plans (But Should)”

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Does Your State Have an Estate or Inheritance Tax?

There is a lot of focus recently on the federal estate and gift tax and the potential for changes due, and rightly so.  The tax rate is 40% of amounts gifted and left at your death above the exemption amount, which is likely to go down.  But, what a lot of people don’t consider is that some states have their own estate taxes, and in a few cases, inheritance tax.  Texas has neither, but I thought a blog on state estate and inheritance taxes would be a good follow-up to my recent blog on issues to consider when moving to a new state.  See that here:  https://galligan-law.com/should-you-update-your-estate-plan-if-you-move-to-a-new-state/

Although it has fallen out of favor recently, many states still have either an estate tax, inheritance tax or some combination.  According to The Tax Foundation’s recent article entitled “Does Your State Have an Estate or Inheritance Tax?”  17 states and the District of Columbia all apply some or both of these taxes.  Hawaii and the State of Washington have the highest estate tax rates in the nation at 20%, and there are 8 states and DC that are next that apply a top rate of 16%. Massachusetts and Oregon have the lowest exemption levels at $1 million, and Connecticut has the highest exemption level at $7.1 million.    For the New York readers, the estate tax exemption is at nearly $6 million and applies rates from about 3% up to 16% depending on how far you exceed the exemption.

6 states have inheritance taxes.  Inheritance taxes, unlike estate taxes, apply a tax rate based relationship of the decedent to the beneficiary, meaning it applies even if the estate is relatively small.  Nebraska has the highest top rate at 18%, and Maryland has the lowest top rate at 10%. All 6 of these states exempt spouses, and some fully or partially exempt immediate relatives.  For you Pennsylvania readers, this could be anywhere from 0% to spouse and 15% to individuals who aren’t close family members.

Estate taxes are paid by the decedent’s estate, prior to asset distribution to the heirs. The tax is imposed on the overall value of the estate less the exemption applicable to that state. Inheritance taxes may be due from either the estate or the recipient of a bequest and are based on the amount distributed to each beneficiary.

As I mentioned earlier, most states have been steering away from estate or inheritance taxes or have upped their exemption levels because estate taxes without the federal exemption hurt a state’s competitiveness. Delaware repealed its estate tax at the start of 2018, and New Jersey finished its phase out of its estate tax at the same time, though it still applies its inheritance tax.

Connecticut still is phasing in an increase to its estate exemption. They plan to mirror the federal exemption by 2023. However, as the exemption increases, the minimum tax rate also increases. In 2020, rates started at 10%, while the lowest rate in 2021 is 10.8%. Connecticut’s estate tax will have a flat rate of 12% by 2023.

In Vermont, they’re still phasing in an estate exemption increase. They are upping the exemption to $5 million on January 1, compared to $4.5 million in 2020.

DC has gone in the opposite direction. The District has dropped its estate tax exemption from $5.8 million to $4 million in 2021, but at the same time decreased its bottom rate from 12% to 11.2%.

So, it is of course a good idea to consider reviewing your estate plan when relocating, but especially if you move to states that have estate or inheritance tax.  Talk to an experienced estate planning attorney about how estate and inheritance taxes affect you in your new state.

Reference: The Tax Foundation (Feb. 24, 2021) “Does Your State Have an Estate or Inheritance Tax?”

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