As it turns out, James Brown’s widow, Tomi Rae Hynie, may not really be his widow after all. Or maybe she is – apparently, the man that she married before she married Brown was a bigamist. If true, then her first marriage would not have been legal, making her marriage to Brown legal. If not true, then her marriage to Brown was not legal, and she may be the mother of his child but is not his wife.
Potato, po-tah-to?
Not when it comes to taxes. By most accounts, Brown’s estate is likely fairly substantial. He is credited with approximately 50 singles which reached Billboard’s Top 100. If his estate surpasses the $2 million mark, he would be subject to the federal estate tax. There is an unlimited marital deduction for money that passes to a spouse – not a girlfriend, not a partner, and not the mother of your child. Your spouse. Otherwise, the federal estate tax can reach nearly 50%, depending on the size of the estate.
Let’s put it in plain numbers. Say Brown’s net estate totaled $10 million. If he were married to Ms. Hynie, and all of his estate passed to her, the tax on that estate would be zero. If he, in fact, is not married to her, and all of his estate passed to her (assuming that he had a will that allowed for such), then the tax on that estate could be more than $3 million. That’s a lot of tax for the sake of one little word. It is, however, an important word.
If Brown’s estate were under $2 million, Ms. Hynie would catch a break. There is no inheritance tax in South Carolina and there is no separate estate tax, so if there’s no federal estate tax due, there’s no state estate tax due.
Whether there was a will, whether Ms. Hynie received anything – those are the salacious details that will be revealed in the days to come. Whether any tax is due? We’ll know that, at the very least, within the next nine months.
I honestly don’t know how you tax lawyers keep sane with all the minutae you have to remember. 😆