CPA Trendlines Podcasts Art Werner: Wealth Transfer Strategies in a Time of Uncertainty | Quick Tax Tip
High-net-worth clients are urged to act before the estate tax exemption expires in 2025.
Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today
A key provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) is approaching its expiration date—and Art Werner, J.D., M.S. Tax, is sounding the alarm for advisors and their wealthy clients.
In the latest episode of the Quick Tax Tip podcast, Werner explains that the temporarily doubled estate and gift tax exemption, enacted under the TCJA, is set to sunset on December 31, 2025. “This creates a lot of uncertainty,” says Werner. “We’re hearing all kinds of things from Congress—maybe an extension, maybe making it permanent, or even letting it die completely. Some are even calling for the estate tax to be repealed. Others want a much higher, even confiscatory, rate.”
With so much political volatility, Werner urges tax professionals to proactively plan for the possibility that the exemption could be drastically reduced—or eliminated altogether.
The TCJA effectively doubled the lifetime estate and gift tax exemption to nearly $13 million per individual (over $25 million for married couples) in 2024. Without Congressional action, this amount could fall by half at the end of 2025.