If you are a business owner and you’d prefer to have your children inherit your business, you can transfer this business interest to them within your estate planning documents. Alternatively, transferring your business to your heirs during your lifetime can accomplish personal goals and provide additional tax benefits. By gifting the business over time, you can gradually transfer ownership and control to your children, assisting them with the management of the business, while providing valuable insights on how the business operates. Transferring your business interests gradually over your lifetime also has the potential added benefit of curtailing gift and estate taxes.
Gifting the business interests can minimize gift and estate taxes because:
1. Any gift transfers both current value and future appreciation of the business to your heirs. Otherwise, the appreciating business interest stays on your balance sheet until passing, and the entire interest can be exposed to estate tax.
2. You can take advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion amount each year with each gift. These are gifts that do not utilize any of your available lifetime tax free gifting exclusion. The current annual exclusion amount is $18,000 for 2024 per person.
3. The current aforementioned lifetime tax free gifting exclusion is $13,610,000 for 2024. Spouses can double this exclusion amount ($27,220,000 per couple) for gifting purposes.
4. Partial interest transfers, as with certain types of trusts and entities such as LLCs or partnerships, may be valued at a discount due to marketability, lack of control and minority interest reasons. This means that the actual value of the transfer is reduced, which results in less of the above referenced exclusions being utilized per transfer.
Legacy planning and business succession planning can be daunting. Peak Asset Management is well equipped to assist business owners make fully informed and smart financial and tax planning decisions related to the transfer of your business. We are here to help.