Clinton's Estate-Tax Plan Doesn't Address Her Own Tax Planning

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s call Tuesday to increase taxes on the wealthy and close “loopholes” didn’t address the candidate’s own moves to shield at least part of the value of her New York home from the estate tax.

Bloomberg News reported in 2014 that Hillary and Bill Clinton created residence trusts in 2010 and shifted ownership of their Chappaqua, New York, house into them in 2011, according to federal financial disclosures and local property records. Such trusts offer tax advantages, in which any increase in the house’s value can be excluded from the Clinton’s taxable estate. The trust could save the couple hundreds of thousands of dollars in future estate taxes, a tax specialist told Bloomberg News in 2014.

The trusts, as well as the “loopholes” she proposed closing in other areas on Tuesday, are legal under current tax rules.

Brian Fallon, a Hillary Clinton spokesman, said, “Their tax rate was over 35 percent in 2013, and she is proposing policies that would raise their taxes further.”

The minimum value of the Clintons’ financial assets is $11 million, according to Hillary Clinton’s most recent campaign disclosure, which requires reporting within broad ranges of value. The couple has earned at least $30 million since January 2014, according to the disclosure. That income places them among the top .01 percent of American taxpayers, based on Internal Revenue Service data. Campaign disclosures show that the Clintons also own life insurance trusts, which can also reduce estate-tax bills.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-13/clinton-s-estate-tax-plan-doesn-t-address-her-own-tax-planning