A tax credit that is afforded to every man, woman and child in America by the IRS. This credit allows each person to gift a certain amount of their assets to other parties without having to pay gift, estate or generation-skipping transfer taxes.

The unified tax credit can be used by taxpayers either before or after death. The $780,800 tax equals $2 million of assets that can be passed to heirs or other beneficiaries. This limit increased to $3.5 million in 2009.