Loans at 0.57% to Family Members Could Save Millions on Taxes

Bloomberg:  “Estate planner Richard Behrendt helped his client make $5 million loans to each of his children this year, avoiding gift taxes of 45 percent and saving the kids as much as $837,000 apiece in interest.  Rates for so-called intra-family loans have declined as much as 53 percent since 2008.  ‘The timing of it was clearly tied to the rock bottom of these rates,’ said Behrendt, who works for Robert W. Baird & Co., based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.   The loans may be the perfect holiday gift to help relatives this year, according to Carol Kroch, head of wealth and financial planning at Wilmington, Delaware-based Wilmington Trust.  For wealthy taxpayers, they can be used for estate planning purposes, since gains earned will be free of estate and gift taxes”