Those are the words of Nebraska Supreme Court judge William Cassel dissenting in the case of Wisner v. Vandelay Investments. The case result was that the estate of a 90 plus widow ended up losing real estate worth over a million dollars due to unpaid real estate taxes of $50,000.
Gladys Wisner owned 480 acres of Lincoln County, Nebraska real estate. In 2009 Gladys moved into a retirement community. In 2010, the real estate taxes became delinquent. In 2011, the county sold a tax certificate for the property. It yields interest at the rate of 14 percent. Because of that high rate, Nebraska has a very active market in these financial ...
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Trusts and the Nebraska Homestead exemption
Beneficiaries of revocable and irrevocable trusts who are over 65 and meet the income test can qualify for a property tax exemption on their homesteads. This year the exempt amount is $159,840.
The trust (revocable or irrevocable) must have at least one of three terms:
A specific right of the beneficiary to occupy the premises;
The right to amend or revoke the trust; or
The power to withdraw the homestead premises from the trust and place the record title in the occupant's name.
The applicant must apply for the homestead exemption between February 1 and June 30 of each year.
There is a sliding scale on the exempt amount ...
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Three Estate Planning Implications from the New Tax Law
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made many changes in tax law and below I discuss three major estate planning implications.
The headline item is that the estate tax exemption is now $22.4 million for married couples and $11.2 million for single people. This means that the federal estate tax will be paid by even fewer Nebraskans. (But note that the Nebraska state inheritance tax is still the law. )
Many couples planned for a bypass trust when the taxable estate amounts were much lower. That made sense at the time. But with the new higher estate tax exemptions maybe the plan should be revisited. When the second spouse in a bypass trust plan ...
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