What Is a “Qualified Disability Expense”?
In 2014, Congress adopted the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act (better known as ABLE). That new law formally introduced the concept of a “qualified disability expense”. But what kind of expenditure is a qualified disability expense? And does the term mean anything outside of ABLE? Definition of qualified disability expense The ABLE Act itself […]
Federal Tax Cut Law Affects Seniors and Those With Disabilities
The Tax Cut and Jobs Act became law at the very end of 2017, and affects taxes for the current year. Many commentators have dissected how the tax cut law will affect tax rates, and business taxes. That’s not all the Act contains, however. A number of changes will particularly affect our older clients or […]
Income Taxation of the Third-Party Special Needs Trust
MARCH 23, 2015 VOLUME 22 NUMBER 12 Last week we wrote about how to handle income tax returns for self-settled special needs trusts. Our simple message: such trusts will always be “grantor trusts”, an income tax term that means they do not pay a separate tax or even file a separate return. This week we’re […]
More on Types of Trusts — Some of the Less Common Varieties
JANUARY 24, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 3 Last week we wrote about different types of trusts you might have encountered, and tried to explain some of the generic terms, differences among and between types, and likely settings where a given type of trust might be appropriate. We wrote about spendthrift trusts, bypass trusts, special needs […]
Distinguishing Two Kinds of Special Needs Trusts
AUGUST 23, 2010 VOLUME 17 NUMBER 27 It really is unfortunate that we didn’t see this problem coming. Those of us who pioneered special needs trust planning back in the 1980s should have realized that we were setting up everyone (including ourselves) for confusion. We should have just given the two main kinds of special […]