Section 5: 23–33%R20

Estate, Gift, and Trust Taxation

Exam insight

The transfer-tax system and fiduciary income tax pull together gift exclusions, the unified estate-and-gift exemption, and the DNI cap on trust deductions. OBBBA made the higher exemption permanent, so the exam now tests a stable, large exclusion amount.

What AICPA wants you to know

1Apply the annual gift exclusion and the unlimited marital and charitable deductions
2Distinguish present from future interests and apply gift splitting
3Compute the gross estate and apply estate deductions and the unified credit
4Apply the OBBBA basic exclusion amount and DSUE portability
5Identify generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax situations
6Compute fiduciary taxable income and apply the DNI limit on distributions

Patterns in this topic

The exam re-skins the same archetypes. Recognize these here, then drill them in the Pattern Lab.

The Estate, Gift, and Trust RuleThe annual exclusion clears present-interest gifts, the unified credit shelters the rest, and DNI caps what a trust's beneficiaries are taxed on.

Exam tip

Study smarter: before you expand each card, cover the screen and try to recall what the concept means from its title alone. Retrieving it from memory builds the recall the exam actually tests, and it beats re-reading.