主题：占豪《美国的慈善基金》和关于遗产税 -- dolong
家园 避税的主力是保险公司 的life insurance，他们针对大多数有些资产的中上阶层（几百万～几千万资产）。
更多的资产的家庭就需要稍微高级一点的工具，住房信贷信托（credit shelter trust，这个中文翻译有些奇怪）就是针对这个市场需求。
慈善剩余信托（charitable remainder trust）针对更多资产的家庭来避税。
而超级富豪如盖茨、巴菲特，这些都不适合了。慈善基金对他们来说是最佳的选择，一方面可以不交税，另一方面可以控制资金的用途，而且对他们的声誉也很有帮助。何乐而不为呢！
家园 你说的这些没有一个真正是用来避遗产税的 life insurence是通常中下层工薪阶级要给孩子留些财产的做法。
credit shelter trust是一个简单的工具用来把一对夫妻的遗产免税额全部用起来。所谓credit shelter是说先死的那个有一个免税额度，可以用这个信托基金“shelter"起来。然后等第二个死的时候，这两个人的额度就可以一起交给受益人了。不考虑其它，这个信托最多只有七百万左右的效果。
charitable remainder trust是生前把财产捐给非营利慈善机构。在有生之年，财产的收益是捐赠人的，死后，这个非营利慈善机构得本金。应该是完全没有避遗产税的可能。
避税在美国是个大学问。而且绝大多数都是要量体裁衣的，一个个的个案处理的。拜托，千万不要拿这些穷人乐来对付。
家园 此life insurence非彼life insure 通常的life insurance用于提防非正常死亡的工薪阶层，比如家里的bread earner得买一个life insurence，如果这个主心骨意外死亡，家小都有保障。
但一个富有的老人，life insurance就没有必要了，主要的功能就是尽量避免少交遗产税。做法就是把premium拔到最高等级，这样少交遗产税的一部分被保险公司赚去了，一部分留给了家小，双赢。
[URL=http://www.pacificlife.com/Channel/Educational+Information/Life+Insurance+Concepts/Life+Insurance+and+Estate+Planning.htm
]Life Insurance and Estate Planning[/URL]
Reduce or eliminate gift and estate taxes - for example, a member of senior generation transfers their residence at a reduced gift tax cost to a Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT) and retains the right to live in the residence for a specified term; the residence eventually passes to the junior generation without any additional gift tax - as long as the grantor survives the specified retained term; junior generation purchases life insurance policy insuring senior generation to insure against the risk that the residence may be brought back into the grantor's estate if the grantor dies during the retained term. Similar programs can be set up for Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs), Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs), Private Annuities and many others.
家园 关于如何避税 Tax avoidance
Estate tax rates and complexity have driven a vast array of support services to assist clients with a perceived eligibility for the estate tax to develop tax avoidance techniques. Many insurance companies maintain a network of life insurance agents, all providing financial planning services, guided to avoid paying estate taxes. Many suggested techniques involve products that can be costly, though the outlay is often only a small fraction of the estate tax liability. Brokerage and financial planning firms also use estate planning, including estate tax avoidance, as a marketing technique. Many law firms also specialize in estate planning, tax avoidance, and minimization of estate taxes.The first technique many use is to combine the tax exemption limits for a husband and wife by their testamentary documents, using what is known as a credit shelter trust. Many, but not all, other techniques recommended by those selling products with high fees, do not really avoid the estate tax, rather they claim to provide a leveraged way to have liquidity to pay for the tax at the time of death. It is very important for those whose primary wealth is in a business they own, or real estate, or stocks, to seek professional legal advice. In one technique pushed by commissioned agents, an irrevocable life insurance trust is recommended, where the parents give their children funds to pay the premiums on life insurance on the parents. Structured in this way, life insurance proceeds can be free of estate tax. However, if the parents have a very high net worth and the life insurance policy would be inadequate in size due to the limits in premiums, a charitable remainder trust may be recommended, but should be critically reviewed. The client, however, may lose access to the asset placed in the CRUT. Proponents of the estate tax, and lobbyists for high commission financial products, argue the tax should be maintained to encourage this form of charity.
家园 遗产税占美国税收比例 ～ 1.5% (300亿美元) 遗产税是为了平息工人阶级的运动，不是为了增加税收，所以这个税收比例不大(1.5%，包括赠与税、遗产税等)。可以参看美国Tax Revenue的比例：
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_United_States
Transfer taxes
The transfer tax generates roughly 1.5% ($30 billion) of the federal government's annual revenue ($2 trillion). It consists of the gift tax, the estate tax and the generation-skipping transfer tax ("GSTT"). Opponents of the transfer tax label these taxes "death taxes". The term "death tax" was popularized by Frank Luntz, a Republican political consultant, but its use goes back to at least the 19th century.[33]