Are intra-family loans now a steal? According to a recent story from Ashlea Ebeling of Forbes, the answer is a resounding “yes!” John O. McManus recently spoke with Ebeling on the topic, of which you should take note. From the article:
The terrifically low rate you can use for a short-term intra-family loan is just 0.56% for loans up to three years. Go out up to 9 years and the rate is 1.68%. For loans of 10-years-plus, it’s just 2.61%.
As Ebeling points out, intra-family loans are a good option for parents and grandparents who want to help buttress future generations with buying a house or opening a professional practice, for example. And what if you were to loan $1 million to a family member who then uses it for a private equity investment that doubles to $2 million? From the story:
“I’ve just made $1 million on her balance sheet instead of mine,” explains John McManus, an estate lawyer in New Providence, N.J. who just helped a developer father loan his son the money to invest in distressed commercial real estate in Newark.
Ebeling explains that there’s a new sense of urgency with interest-rate sensitive techniques such as intra-family loans, as the Fed will soon increase rates.
For those who wish to capitalize on the opportunity, McManus shares an important point: If you make a loan to your kids, you need clear terms and documents to back it up. An excerpt from Ebeling’s article:
“People aren’t fastidious about paying the loans back. If you’re not paying it back, then the IRS says you’ve made a gift,” McManus says. He recommends terms that require the kids to pay interest on an annual basis and tells clients to put reminders on their calendars to remind their kids to pay. In a pinch, parents can give kids annual exclusion gifts (for 2016, you can give $14,000 to as many individuals as you’d like without triggering gift taxes) to help them pay the interest. Another technique is loaning them a little extra so they’ll have the money in reserve to pay the interest. Note: Any interest the kids pay is taxable income to you, but if you’ve lent a child less than $10,000 in total, you don’t have to charge interest.
For more tips on intra-family loans, head on over to Forbes and read Ebeling’s full article “Tax-Free Transfer: Intra-Family Loans Are A Steal Now.” For help with setting up an intra-family loan and to take advantage of other estate planning techniques, contact McManus & Associates at 908-898-0100.
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