Last Man Standing star Tim Allen had some harsh words Wednesday for how our government is currently operating.
Appearing on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, Allen said, "You better give your money away before it gets taken from you" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST: Does your family ask you for money when you go back home?
TIM ALLEN: Yes!
KIMMEL: Do they? Yeah, yeah.
ALLEN: Does that ever work, you know? This folds into the government, doesn't it?
KIMMEL: I think it does work.
ALLEN: You can't give people money and help them. It doesn't work.
KIMMEL: Yeah, but they're willing to try.
KIMMEL: Well, why don't you make an announcement right now that you’re headed home and you won't be giving any money to anyone?
ALLEN: Well, you know what I look at sometimes, I say, “Rather them than the government.”
KIMMEL: I see.
ALLEN: You know, you better give your money away before it gets taken from you.
KIMMEL: You don't really get a choice, though, and I don’t think it counts. You can't tax credit "Gave money to my Aunt Martha."
ALLEN: Actually, you can gift stuff.
KIMMEL: Is that right?
ALLEN: You can. You can give away gifts to your family and friends.
KIMMEL: This to me means you've been giving a lot of money to your family.
ALLEN: Rather them than the government. That's how I look at it.
Allen of course was correct.
In 2012, you can give a tax-free gift of up to $13,000 per person. If you're married, you and your spouse can each make such a gift.
Your combined gifts over both of your lifetimes can now total $10,240,000.
What Allen might not know is that this changes on January 1, 2013, when the lifetime limit drops to $1 million per spouse.
As such, if Allen is serious about this, he should be gifting a lot in the next five weeks.
