The IRS has announced that the estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax exemption for 2018 will be $11,180,000. The Tax Cuts and Job Act roughly doubled what the exemption was in 2017. However, the exact amount of the exemption was unknown until the IRS published Revenue Procedure 2018-18 which delineates 2018 inflation adjustments. The Tax Cuts and Job Act exemption amounts will sunset after 2025, taking the exemption back to 2017 levels. Planned giving while the exemption is high is an important issue for high net worth families. The gift tax annual exclusion is $15,000 for the year 2018, up from $14,000 in 2017.
For details of many of these and other inflation adjustments, go to https://www.irs.gov/irb/2018-10_IRB#RP-2018-18.