Introducing the Wendland Services Weekly — issue one

This is issue one.

Starting now, Wendland Services will publish a short weekly note for high-net-worth households and family offices — tax, operations, and the practical moves that actually matter. No filler. No jargon for its own sake. One clear briefing you can read between meetings.

When the site is ready, you will be able to sign up on the Wendland Services website and receive each issue by email, with a full archive of past weeks online. Until then, this first edition sets the standard.

1. The federal exemption is no longer a countdown clock

For 2026, the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer basic exclusion is fifteen million dollars per person (thirty million dollars for a married couple), with annual inflation indexing. That came from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025 — not from the old sunset script many plans still assume. The top federal rate remains forty percent. The 2026 annual gift tax exclusion is nineteen thousand dollars per recipient.

What changed for planning: permanence (until Congress changes it again) means the urgent question for most households is no longer “gift before it halves.” It is whether documents still do what you intend.

2. Formula clauses that still “shelter” may now create an income-tax problem

Many wills and revocable trusts still pour into a bypass trust using a formula keyed to the maximum available exclusion. With a fifteen-million-dollar individual shelter, that formula can overfund the bypass trust for families who will never owe federal estate tax — and assets in a classic bypass trust often miss a second basis step-up at the surviving spouse’s death. For 2026, the higher-value conversation for many readers is income-tax basis and flexibility, not more shelter against a tax they will not owe. Families still clearly above the exemption keep the traditional toolkit; everyone else should audit the formula language with counsel.

3. New York’s cliff still bites far below the federal number

New York State’s basic exclusion for deaths in 2026 is seven million three hundred fifty thousand dollars. If the New York taxable estate exceeds one hundred five percent of that amount — seven million seven hundred seventeen thousand five hundred dollars — the cliff rule applies and the entire estate is taxed from the first dollar under the graduated state schedule. New York also has no portability between spouses. For Long Island and metro New York families in the roughly seven-to-fifteen-million range, state estate exposure often matters more than the federal headline.

4. Tuesday, September 15, 2026 is a double calendar day

For calendar-year individuals, the third 2026 estimated tax installment is due September 15 (covering June through August). The same date is the extended filing deadline for many calendar-year partnerships (Form 1065) and S corporations (Form 1120-S). Safe-harbor thinking still applies: generally enough withholding and estimates to cover ninety percent of 2026 tax, or one hundred percent of 2025 tax (one hundred ten percent if 2025 adjusted gross income exceeded one hundred fifty thousand dollars). Do not blur the entity return and the estimated payment — they are separate obligations.

5. Qualified business income deduction is now a standing assumption

Section 199A’s twenty percent deduction on qualified business income was made permanent for years beginning after December 31, 2025, rather than sunsetting. Threshold and phase-in ranges were widened. For pass-through owners and family entities, that shifts entity-choice and compensation modeling from “temporary windfall” to longer-horizon design — still with wage, capital, and specified-service rules that need a live projection, not a rule of thumb.

What this weekly is for

Each week: a few sharp items, a calendar watch when it matters, and a quiet path to a second look if something in your plan no longer matches the law. If you want that second look on estimated payments, entity returns on extension, or New York cliff exposure versus the federal fifteen-million-dollar shelter, write to marcel@wendlandservices.com.

Wendland Services is an independent Bellmore practice focused on accounting, bookkeeping, tax, and consulting for high-net-worth households and family offices. This note is educational, not advice for your facts, and not an offer of legal services.

Watch for the signup on the Wendland Services website — weekly to your inbox, archive on the site.

— Wendland Services marcel@wendlandservices.com