I spent 6.5 hours today reviewing 5 returns. They were a load. Our senior staff accountant who is a CPA had a total of 24 hours into those returns and after today I had 10 hours into them. Some of you do much larger returns than I do. Having 34 hours into 5 returns all related to each other is not real common for us. I have a couple of these each year. Two 1040's, two 1041's, one 709. The Estate return was filed late last year and not part of these five and that estate return was a ton more hours and I did that one myself last year. Client knew he was coming in to pick them up today and he came in around 3 PM. If you do not understand DSUE and portability, and if you have married clients worth several million dollars or more, you really should take some CPE on this topic. We actually have a question on our required personal tax planner that asks if the client is worth three million dollars or more. We generated a list of clients who are married and are worth three million or more. Note three million is too low for this strategy; but, it is the number I chose for the planner and enough to start a conversation if one spouse dies. It all depends on what happens to the lifetime exemption on 12/31/25. Note you should expect estate and trust attorneys to be swamped in 2025 and you should keep that in mind. They will be swamped since under current law the lifetime estate exclusion is cut in half as of 1/1/26. This is a rare situation; however, you can actually save clients millions of dollars in certain circumstances... This clients net worth was high enough to make this strategy brilliant in this specific case. Note client has a lawyer who drew up both trusts and the will. Client has a very strong financial planner. The DSUE and portability plan came from yours truly. This is almost assuredly going to be the most taxes I have ever saved a client. I am proud of this one. Very proud... #cpa #ea #tax #accounting #dsue #portability
@MikeSyl36625988 Can you share the financial planner?
@MikeSyl36625988 The most I saved a client on taxes was $630k and that was last year. I was quite proud of myself and the client has become an even bigger cheerleader for me.
@MikeSyl36625988 I want to feel for you... Maybe less time on here?
@MikeSyl36625988 I need to take CPE on this
@MikeSyl36625988 estate tax planning alpha is staggering