Legal Issues, Judicial Analysis, And Domicile Planning To Avoid State Inheritance Tax Using Tennessee

Abstract

This paper examines the pitfalls and planning opportunities for taxpayers attempting to change domicile from our case study state, Tennessee, to avoid Tennessee inheritance tax to a state that doesnt have such taxes. Various court cases and state tax authority will be examined in order to synthesize the issues and formulate some general guidelines to assist taxpayers and their advisors in successfully using a change of domicile as a tool in state estate tax planning. A leading New Jersey case will be examined as an example of the consequences of unsuccessful state domicile planning causing the taxpayer to be subject to state inheritance tax in multiple states.