Beth Kaufman States Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Is More Troublesome in 2010 Than Estate Tax

The generation-skipping transfer tax presents even larger planning problems during the 2010 repeal year than the estate tax, according to practitioners at a District of Columbia Bar Taxation Section luncheon in Washington on September 29. The questions surrounding the GSTT are ‘‘infinitely more complicated,'' said Beth Shapiro Kaufman of Caplin & Drysdale. Kaufman, who previously served as associate legislative tax counsel in Treasury's Office of Tax Policy, said the 2010 GSTT law is helpful for only two scenarios: a direct transfer to a skip person, and a distribution or termination of a trust in existence before 2010, which would not be exempt from the GSTT. ‘‘Everything else is not clear,'' she said. Click on the attached pdf to read the full text version of the article.