avoiding state inheritance tax
My mother is a widow living in PA which has a 4.5% inheritance tax. I am looking for ways to eliminate or reduce this impact. Her estate is about 1.5m of which she has a house valued at 350k, cash of 350k, and investments of 800k. She owns her home outright where she bought it for 220k and the current market value is 350k. If she transfers the house in her will then the estate would have to pay the inheritance tax on 350k. Is it possible that she gifts me (her son) 350k in cash. I file the irs form indicating the gift but no taxes since below the lifetime exclusion. i then buy her home for 350k and pay the 2% transfer fee for PA. She doesn’t pay capital gains as it is under the 250k exclusion for her primary home. She then gifts me another 350k cash from the sale. So her estate is 700k less. As long as she lives for 12 months then I think that avoids inheritance tax on the 700k and avoids the capital gains. Is this allowed?
