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On the surface, it is logical to think that you would be required to report the inheritance, but this is really not the case. The person that left you the money paid taxes throughout their life, and their estate is comprised of assets that remain after taxes have been paid.
For this reason, you do not have to report a direct inheritance that you receive through the terms of a will.
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Yes, if you are named as the beneficiary of an insurance policy, you will receive the proceeds tax-free.
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It all depends on the type of account that you inherit. Traditional individual retirement accounts are funded with pre-tax income. As a result, distributions to the account holder are taxable, so distributions to a beneficiary would also be taxable.
The taxation works in the reverse manner with a Roth individual retirement account. Taxes are paid before the assets are contributed into the account, so the distributions are not taxed. This applies to the original account holder and the beneficiary.
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The answer is yes and no. If you receive distributions from the principal in a living trust, they would not be taxable, because the principal was accumulated after the decedent paid taxes.
Distributions of the earnings that are generated by the principal would be subject to taxation. Plus, the trust itself would have to pay taxes on interest income that was not distributed.
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If you inherit assets that appreciated during the life of the person that left you the inheritance, you would get a step-up in basis. For capital gains purposes, the clock would start a new, and you would only be responsible for gains that accumulate after you take possession of the assets.
This is a controversial tax break that some lawmakers would like to change, because it is used by high net worth individuals as an estate planning strategy. They would like to do away with the step-up in basis, so this is always a possibility.
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The estate tax is only a factor for multimillionaires. We are focusing on other types of taxes here, but you can visit our estate tax FAQs to obtain details about estate and gift taxes.
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