THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, October 25, 2024 Page 19 OBITUARIES | FROM PAGE 17 of Reading. He is also survived by several nieces, nephews and friends. The funeral will be held from the A. J. Spadafora Funeral Home, 865 Main Street, Malden on Saturday October 26th at 9:00am followed by a Mass of Christian Burial celebrating Tom’s life in the Immaculate Conception Church, 600 Pleasant Street, Malden at 10:00am. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend. Visiting hours will be held at the funeral home on Friday from 4:00pm-8:00pm. Interment will be in Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett. In lieu of fl owers donations in Tom’s memory may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project https://www.support.woundedwarriorproject.org. MUSINGS | FROM PAGE 18 friend calling Forestdale home. They walked on; hands clasped firmly together slowly disappearing into the distance. An inspiration to behold.” Postscript 1: “100 Years From Today;” The Spaniels wrote it, Frank (Sinatra) popularized it. A fi tting tribute to this happy, loving couple; “The moon is shining, and that’s a good sign / Cling to me closer and say you’ll be mine / Remember, darling, we won’t see it shine / A hundred years from today.” Postscript 2: Who else immediately thought of Joe Jackson’s “Happy Loving Couples” from the previous paragraph? Nobody? Oh well. LOL. —Peter is a longtime Malden resident and a regular contributor to The Malden Advocate and can be reached at PeteL39@ aol.com for comments, compliments or criticisms. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Call now! 617-387-2200 advertise on the web at www.advocatenews.net Lawn and Yard CareUSA FALL 781-521-9927 Discount Tree Service 781-269-0914 $$ I PAY CASH $$ for World War II military items. Top prices paid for helmets, swords, daggers, uniforms, etc. Call 617-719-1698 SPADAFORA AUTO PARTS JUNK CARS WANTED SAME DAY PICK UP Advocate 781-324-1929 Quality Used Tires Mounted & Installed Used Auto Parts & Batteries Family owned & operated since 1946 I Professional TREE REMOVAL & Cleanups 24-HOUR SERVICE f you transfer your home or investment assets into an irrevocable Trust, no gift taxes will be owed if the Trust is drafted in such a way as to avoid a completed gift. If the Settor of the irrevocable Trust reserves the right to determine the ultimate benefi - ciaries of the Trust, under Internal Revenue Code Section 2511 and Treasury Regulation Section 25.2511-2C, the transfer into the Trust will not be a completed gift. Since there is no gift tax in Massachusetts and the current gift tax exemption is $13.6million, most people decide not to even bother fi ling a gift tax return for informational purposes only. In a typical Medicaid irrevocable Trust, it is structured as a grantor-type trust for both income tax purposes and capital gains tax purposes. Therefore, if there was a rental property titled in the name of the irrevocable Trust, the Trust would fi le its own income tax return under its own federal ID number and the Settlor of the Trust would receive a Grantor letter in order for the Settlor to report the net rental income or loss on his or her own individual income tax return. The same would be true for any dividend income, interest income or capital gain distributions generated by the irrevocable Trust as a result of transferring any bank account, brokerage account or other investment account to the irrevocable Trust. Since the transfer to the irIt’s Time For GIFT TAXES AND MEDICAID IRREVOCABLE TRUSTS CLEAN-UPS • Reasonable rates • Fast, reliable service revocable Trust involves an incomplete gift, the other benefi t will be that the appreciated real estate or stocks, for example, in a brokerage account, will receive a step-up in cost basis at the time of the Settlor’s death, thereby providing the benefi ciaries of the irrevocable Trust a fresh starting point with the cost basis equal to the fair market value of the underlying Trust assets at the time of the Settlor’s death. Therefore, if the real estate or stock portfolio is then sold within a short period of time after the Settlor’s death, there would be either no capital gain or little capital gain to be recognized upon that subsequent sale. If your principal residence is transferred to the irrevocable Trust, and you wish to sell in the future, the Settlors of the Trust would enjoy the benefit of a $500,000 capital gain tax exclusion. For a single Settlor, the capital gain exclusion would be $250,000. If deeding to children outright, if the children do not live in the home, they will not receive the benefi t of the capital gain exclusion. Since the home is not their principal residence, and there has been a completed gift, there is a strong likelihood that the children will have to pay a capital gains tax based on their portion of the total capital gain. If the parents deeded to the children with a reserved life estate, a completed gift will have occurred and the capital gain would have to be allocated to the life tenants and the remaindermen, based upon the Book Aleph table and IRS Section 7520 interest rates applicable at the time of the sale. An irrevocable Trust would avoid those tax issues, would avoid probate and would start the fi ve-year look-back period in order to protect the Trust assets from a nursing home. Joseph D. Cataldo is an estate planning/elder law attorney, Certifi ed Public Accountant, Certifi ed Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a master’s degree in taxation. Call $ $ $ $ LAWNS Cut From $ 25
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