What are the tax implications of leaving your estate to a pet?

Answer 1

I assume you are talking about that screwball Leona Helmsley leaving $12 million to her dog. Actually, it was left to a trust that has the responsibility of caring for the dog - and yes, the trust will pay taxes every year on any income from the assets in the trust.

A trust is about the only way anyone can actually leave money to an animal.

Answer 2

Is that even legal???

So there is not a single other Homo Sapien in this whole wide world that you'd rather leave it to than your pet???

Are you nuts?

OK, so to answer your question. If you were to leave it as a trust, just the normal estate Taxes would come into play. If everything is left to an LLC, you get the most Tax protection, but the pet can't be named as an interest on it. If you let it sit in your own estate and just leave a mandate for the executor to make sure the pet is taken care of, all of your personal bills must be paid.

For example, if you were to die and leave $200k in assets to another person, then things like your credit card, etc. get written off and not paid. If you leave the $200k in that estate and have $20k in CC, then you're CC Companies will raid your estate for the $20k.

But really, there's not another person out fo the 6 billion that live on this planet that you'd rather leave everything to???

I know you love "Mr. Pooky" or "Snuggles" or whatever you call him, but Seriously!

Seriously.