Swap Power
Swap Power for Basis Management – Assets such as property or accounts gifted or transferred to an irrevocable trust do not receive a step-up in income tax basis at the donor’s death. Gifted assets instead retain the donor’s carryover basis, potentially resulting in significant capital gains realization upon the subsequent sale of any appreciated assets.
Exercising the swap power allows the donor to exchange one or more low-basis assets in an existing irrevocable trust for one or more high-basis assets currently owned by and includible in the donor’s estate for estate tax purposes. In this way, low-basis assets are positioned to receive a basis adjustment upon the donor’s death, and the capital gains realized upon the sale of any high-basis assets, whether by the trustee of the irrevocable trust or any trust beneficiary who received an asset-in-kind, may be reduced or eliminated.
Example: Phoenix purchased real estate in 2005 for $1 million and gifted the property to his irrevocable trust in 2015 when the property had a fair market value of $5 million. Phoenix dies in 2020, and the property has a date-of-death value of $11 million. If the trust sells the property soon after Phoenix’s death for $13 million, the trust would be required to pay capital gains tax on $12 million, the difference between the sale price and the purchase price.
Let us say that before Phoenix died, he utilized the swap power in his irrevocable trust and exchanged the real estate in the irrevocable trust for stocks and cash having a value equivalent to the fair market value of the real estate on the date of the swap.
At Phoenix’s death, because the property is part of his gross estate, the property receives an adjusted basis of $11 million. If his estate or beneficiaries sell the property for $13 million, they will only pay capital gains tax on $2 million, the difference between the adjusted date-of-death basis and the sale price. Under this scenario, Phoenix’s estate and beneficiaries avoid paying capital gains tax on $10 million by taking advantage of the swap powrer.
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