Billionaire Heiress Paid More In Taxes Than She Paid To John Edwards

Among the charges that were brought against John Edwards, this matter involves the donation he received from billionaire Rachel Mellon. In 2008, Mellon sent an estimated $725,000 to Rielle Hunter, Edwards’s mistress and the mother of his daughter. While most of the nation was concerned about whether the donation constituted a misappropriation of election funds for non-campaign purposes, a separate question arose among trust and estate lawyers: what were the tax consequences of Ms. Mellon’s gift?

Some estate planning lawyers argue that Ms. Mellon would probably be subjected to both the gift tax and the generation-skipping transfer tax. Based upon the applicable tax rate at the time the gift was made, it is estimated that Ms. Mellon probably had to pay the IRS a little more than John Edwards in taxes or a total of $786,083.

See Wendy S. Goffe, Uncle Same Got More Than John Edwards From Billionaire Heiress, Tax Pros Say, Forbes, June 4, 2012.