Preparing Form 706: The Federal Estate Tax Return

The executor of a decedent's property uses the Form 706 to figure the property tax imposed by Chapter 11 of the Internal Revenue Code, and also used to compute the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax imposed by Chapter 13 on direct skips.

The Form 706 has been mentioned as the source for the wide variety of errors and omission claims against the accountancy profession. The property tax return is probably the most complex and consequential federal return that most practitioners will face. Laden with unique rules, elections with deadlines, the integration of substantive state and federal tax law, the Form 706 creates particular demanding situations for the unwary and even experienced practitioners. This program is designed to encourage better practice points, highlight common mistakes, expose common problems that generate audit while providing practical guidance to prepare effective, tax-savings estate tax returns.

Session Highlights:

• Learn the way to put together every agenda to the Form 706, using a sample return as an illustration.
• Identify the six major components of Form 706 and Identify compliance issues.
• Recognize the importance of the information items and questions on Form 706.
• Highlights of portability elections to make the deceased spousal unused exclusion amount (DSUA) available to the surviving spouse.
• Understand proper asset valuation compliance.
• Understand proper deduction compliance.
• Understand tax calculation.
• The ins and outs of the “portability” rules, including how the rules work using common examples.
• Issues involved in the preparation of the decedent’s final federal income tax return (Form 1040).
• Various post-mortem property planning issues involved in the preparation of the above-mentioned tax return.
• Complete understanding of estate and gift taxation.
• Income tax consequences.
• Overlooked GST issues.

Credits and Other information:

• Session Duration: 4 Hours
• Case Studies and Live Q&A session with speaker
• PowerPoint presentation for reference
• Session learning level: Introductory
• Delivery method: Group Internet Based
• IRS Credits: 4 Tax Hours

Who Will Benefit:

• CPA's
• Tax Attorneys
• Accountants
• Tax Compliance Managers
• Other Tax Professionals