Warren Buffett's sister gives Northwestern a $101M gift - Chicago Tribune











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Go Mildcats! uh . . . Wildcats!

Her tax bill just got cut in half......and I'm just guessing, but I think her gift was appreciated stock. Not a check. A hundred mil. Very generous.

I have a client who gave 1 million to his alma mater...in three installments...in highly appreciated company stock. A piker by Buffett standards, but hey, you can't take it with you.

Prolly so.....

RE: appreciated stock - I pity the poor bastids that haven't given any thought to the taxes they're in for on their Berkshire-Hathaway stock owned for 3-4 decades @ age 70.5 IRA-RMDs and whenever they sell some. Better to gift it away if possible.

Not so much of a problem in an IRA. It's all OI out the door anyway.

As to gifting, I would say it all depends.... on the size of your estate for one thing. As you know, gifting during life transfers the donor's basis; "gifting' at death gets a step up to current value. If H/W's combined assets are less than $10,860,000, holding to death beats the tax man out of gain....forever.
(This is the so-called "trust fund loophole" bantered about recently by Democrats.)

OTOH, back in the 90's, when the stock market was roaring like a Saturn V rocket, I was POA & co-executor for an elderly woman. She had plenty of assets & to save estate taxes, I gifted up to the amount of the unified credit..either 600 or 650k in those days. The top rate, which she fell in was 55% then. Of course, the two heirs, grandsons, went to their own investment advisors, who promptly turned around & sold the stock, then put them in mutual funds. I'm sure they took quite a (two-fold) haircut.