The Internal Revenue Service has published final regulations on the changes to the federal estate and gift tax basic exclusion amount (BEA), which doubled from $5 million to $10 million in 2018, but will return to $5 million in 2026. “Estate and Gift Taxes; Differences in the Basic Exclusion Amount,” TD 9884, 84 F.R. 64995 (11/26/2019), Doc. No. 2019-25601.

The final regulations appear to be effectively the same as the proposed regulations, and my comments on the proposed regulations can be found in “Proposed Regulations on Exclusion Amount Changes.” (The Internal Revenue Service did not adopt my alternative approach, which is explained in my “Comments on Proposed Regulations on Exclusion Amount Changes,” and the reasons that my comments were rejected are explained in part 8 of the preamble to the final regulations.)