On May 28, President Biden and his administration released its revenue-raising proposals in the Treasury Department’s General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2022 Revenue Proposals (the Green Book).1 For estate planners, the proposals were interesting both for what was included and what wasn’t. Most notably, the much anticipated reduction in the estate and gift tax exemption didn’t make it into the Green Book nor did any changes to the transfer-tax regime. Instead, the Biden administration is proposing to make death, lifetime giving and exceeding maximum holding periods for assets in trust recognition events for income tax purposes. If this proposal comes to fruition, gifts and bequests would be subject to not just one tax regime but two, which would have a dramatic impact on estate planning for high-net-worth (HNW) individuals.
While the proposal to tax gain at the time of a gift and bequest doesn’t affect the transfer-tax regime per se, it would be a dramatic change to federal income taxation if it, or even a modified version of it, were to become law, and because of the nature of the transfers, estate planners will need to advise clients of the impact. Since the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA), income tax consequences of planning have come into focus in what many refer to as a “paradigm shift.” With ATRA “permanently” keeping the lifetime exemption amount north of
$5 million, the emphasis on estate taxes gave way to a more comprehensive calculus that considered the benefits of the step-up in income tax basis that’s currently available for transfers on death. The president’s proposal to eliminate the so-called “basis step-up” further shifts the paradigm away from transfer taxes and will instead increase the focus on planning techniques driven by income tax considerations. Here’s a summary of the key elements of this proposal and others impacting estate planning, how these proposals compare with others and how advisors might help clients.
Not Your Average Democratic Plan
For decades, past administrations had issued a Green Book on an annual basis to set out their respective wish lists of tax proposals they would like to see take effect. Although many of the proposals in a Green Book don’t become law, it gives an indication of what a given administration is hoping to achieve and is therefore helpful to practitioners in advising clients of what the future may hold. The Trump administration didn’t partake in this tradition, so prior to the Biden administration releasing its Green Book, the Obama administration’s 2016 Green Book was the last time the Treasury Department issued this document.2
Prior to the release of the 2021 Green Book, one might have assumed that proposals related to trust and estate planning in Biden’s plan would look similar to Obama’s 2016 Green Book. After all, Biden was vice president at the time, and the proposals in the Obama Green Books are alive and well in current legislative proposals from Democrats in Congress. Obama’s 2016 Green Book included: (1) lowering the estate tax exemption to $3.5 million and lowering the gift tax exemption to $1 million; (2) including certain assets in grantor trusts in a taxpayer’s gross estate; (3) eliminating zeroed-out grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs); (4) limiting generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax-exempt status for trusts to 90 years; and (5) limiting the amount of transfers to a trust that would qualify for the annual exclusion under Crummey powers to $50,000 per donor-taxpayer. A variation of each of those proposals can be found in Senator Bernie Sanders’ For the 99.5% Act3 and Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2021.4 While the tax plan that then-candidate Biden campaigned on didn’t get into GRATs and GSTs, it did call for lowering the exemption that was part of the unity platform brokered at the Democratic Party Convention.5 Not a single one of these now mainstream Democratic Party proposals made it into Biden’s Green Book.
Where Proposals Originated
Biden’s Green Book takes a different approach to taxing HNW families’ estate-planning structures—using the income tax regime to tax as deemed sales transfers by gift or bequest, transfers into and out of trusts and partnerships and assets retained in trust in excess of a maximum holding period. The resulting capital gains tax would be in addition to the potential gift, estate and GST taxes that may be imposed. This proposal, while alarming for many, isn’t new.
The origins of Biden’s Green Book proposals’ substance and text can be found in the final two Obama Green Books. In his 2015 State of the Union Address, Obama proposed eliminating the step-up in tax basis under Internal Revenue Code Section 1014 for assets included in a decedent’s gross estate in favor of recognizing gain on appreciated assets. In doing so, it gave IRC Section 1014 the misnomer of the “trust fund loophole.” There were certain exceptions to this general proposal, such as a $100,000 per individual exclusion from capital gains as well as a $250,000 exclusion per individual for the gains recognized on the transfer of a principal residence. Further, spouses who received property would have the basis of the donor-spouse carried over, and transfers to charity would be exempt from the tax. This proposal also allowed these exclusions to be portable to a surviving spouse in a similar fashion to portability for the federal estate tax exemption.
While this proposal lost steam when Trump took office, Biden has been talking about this concept throughout the campaign and since taking office. In October 2019, he announced a campaign proposal called “The Biden Plan for Education Beyond High School,” which, among other things, provided two free years of college and proposed to pay for it in part “by eliminating the stepped-up basis loophole.”6 Not much detail was provided on how this tax change would be implemented in the course of the campaign, but it was safe to assume that the Obama proposal would be a starting point.
In March 2021, after Biden took office, Sen. Chris Van Hollen and others proposed the Sensible Taxation and Equity Promotion Act (STEP) of 2021.7 The text of the legislation that was released for discussion purposes would treat gifts and death as recognition events. Like the Obama proposal, there was an exclusion of $100,000 for lifetime gifts but a more generous $1 million exclusion for transfers at death. The legislation also introduced some proposals not found in the Obama Green Books. One is the introduction of a deemed recognition event every
21 years for assets held in non-grantor trusts. Another was burdensome reporting requirements that would require all trusts with more than $1 million of assets or $20,000 of income to provide not only a balance sheet and income statement but also “a full and complete accounting of all trust activities and operations for the year.”8 Most concerning is that the legislation would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2021.
One month after the introduction of the STEP Act, Biden made his campaign promise a proposal. In his first address to a joint session of Congress on April 28, 2021, Biden unveiled the American Families Plan.9 This proposal not only provided additional education financial assistance past high school like his campaign plan but also assistance with the cost of early childhood education, assistance with childcare and 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. It also extended the recently expanded child tax credit. This statement to Congress was accompanied by the White House releasing a Fact Sheet that explained not only the proposals but also revenue generators to pay for them. Part of this Fact Sheet stated:
Moreover, the President would eliminate the loophole that allows the wealthiest Americans to entirely escape tax on their wealth by passing it down to heirs. Today, our tax laws allow these accumulated gains to be passed down across generations untaxed, exacerbating inequality. The President’s plan will close this loophole, ending the practice of “stepping-up” the basis for gains in excess of $1 million ($2.5 million per couple when combined with existing real estate exemptions) and making sure the gains are taxed if the property is not donated to charity. The reform will be designed with protections so that family-owned businesses and farms will not have to pay taxes when given to heirs who continue to run the business. Without these changes, billions in capital income would continue to escape taxation entirely.10
This proposal made clear that the Biden administration was making it a priority to change the “loophole” or what practitioners know as a plain reading application of IRC Sections 1014 and 1015.
One month after the American Families Plan was released, the Biden Green Book was released, providing further detail to how this change would actually operate. It had three sections: (1) a summary of current law; (2) the reason for changing current law; and (3) the actual proposed change. As it relates to the summary of current law and the reason for change, the text of the Biden proposal is substantially the same as the Obama Green Book proposals. As for the proposed change, the Biden Green Book builds off of the Obama Green Book by taking parts of it verbatim while adding more details of the mechanics of this new regime and creating even more recognition events. Like the Obama proposal, gifts and transfers at death would be recognition events. However, the Biden proposal, like the STEP Act, goes further in treating transfers to and from trusts as recognition events and calling for a periodic recognition of gain for assets held in trusts on reaching a maximum holding period.
Recognition Events
Here are some of the highlights of Biden’s Green Book proposals regarding recognition events for income tax purposes.
Gifts, bequests and transfers of appreciated property into, or distributed in kind from, trusts (other than revocable, wholly owned grantor trusts) and partnerships will be treated as recognition events for the donor or donor’s estate. The STEP Act is similar but does address transfers into and out of partnerships and is more nuanced with regard to grantor trusts as detailed below.
Exclusions:
- Tangible property. Tangible personal property (other than collectibles) isn’t treated as being sold.
- General exclusion. Biden’s proposal provides a $1 million per individual exclusion from gain. This amount is portable to a surviving spouse using the same rules for portability of the gift and estate tax purpose and would be indexed for inflation. As noted above, the STEP Act only permits $100,000 of the $1 million per individual exclusion to be applied to lifetime transfers.
- Principal residence. In addition to the general exclusion, the Biden proposal would allow for the exclusion of up to $250,000 of gain per taxpayer on the sale of a principal residence that’s currently allowed under IRC Section 121. This $250,000 would also be portable to the surviving spouse for transfers at death. Although the exclusion is currently portable for up to two years after the date of death under IRC Section 121(b)(4), presumably the Biden proposal would allow the portable nature to be indefinite. The section-by-section explanation of the STEP Act confirms that the exclusion for principal residences is intended to apply.
- Qualified small business stock (QSBS). The Biden proposal confirms that the exclusion currently available for QSBS would also apply. The STEP Act doesn’t explicitly address this exclusion.
- Losses. With respect to transfers at death, losses are available to offset gain under the Biden proposal and STEP Act.
Exempt transferees:
- Surviving spouse. Under the Biden proposal, transfers at death to a “U.S. spouse” wouldn’t be a recognition event, and the decedent’s tax basis would carry over to the surviving spouse. The proposal uses the term “decedent” without including a blanket exemption for lifetime transfers to U.S. spouses; however, the STEP Act would also exempt such transfers, and there’s no indication this is anything more than an oversight as indirect transfers from a revocable grantor trust to a U.S. spouse are excepted. The Biden proposal doesn’t define the term “U.S. spouse” though the STEP Act does so with reference to both U.S. citizens and long-term permanent residents, including transfers outright and to marital deduction qualifying trusts.
- Charity: The Biden proposal similarly exempts transfers from decedents to charity. As with transfers to U.S. spouses, this presumably is intended to apply to transfers to charity during the donor’s lifetime as well, as is the case in the STEP Act. Both Biden’s proposal and the STEP Act apply gain recognition on a proportionate basis for split-interest charitable trusts (that is, lead and remainder trusts). Neither addresses the scenario in which the grantor (or a U.S. spouse) retains the other interest, as is often the case with a charitable remainder trust.
- Donee’s basis: An interesting modification to the Obama proposal found in Biden’s relates to the tax basis in the property subject to a recognition event. Presumably, if there’s a recognition event, then the donee’s basis would be the fair market value (FMV) at the time of recognition. For transfers at death, the recipient of the property receives an adjusted basis even if no tax was ultimately owed because of the $1 million exemption. However, for lifetime gifts, the Biden proposal doesn’t provide a basis adjustment for property shielded from recognition by the $1 million exclusion, and the donor’s basis will carry over. The STEP Act doesn’t draw this distinction. As a result, if the Biden proposal were to become law, taxpayers would be incentivized to preserve the $1 million exemption until death to maximize its benefit and gift high or full basis assets during lifetime. By comparison, under the STEP Act, taxpayers would be incentivized to gift low basis assets to use the lifetime exemption to step up the basis without having a tax liability.
- Deferral: The Biden proposal allows for a 15-year payment plan on the tax liability for all non-liquid assets, which is the same as the Obama proposal and allows more assets to qualify for this deferral when compared to the current estate tax deferral method under IRC Section 6166, which only applies to certain closely held businesses. However, with regard to closely held businesses, the Biden proposal allows for an indefinite deferral for family-owned and operated businesses that will only be due when a business is no longer family-owned and operated. The STEP Act includes a version of the 15-year deferral with acceleration provisions similar to deferral under Section 6166, but it doesn’t include an extended or indefinite deferral for family-owned and operated businesses.
- Valuation: The Biden proposal contains a valuation rule not found in the Obama proposal or STEP Act. While the FMV for recognition purposes will be determined using methodologies used for estate and gift tax purposes, there’s one crucial distinction. The Biden proposal provides that “a transferred partial interest would be its proportional share of the FMV of the entire property.” That is, there seemingly won’t be an opportunity to apply appropriate valuation discounts when transferring minority interests, potentially creating a mismatch between the value used for gift and estate purposes and for income tax purposes. This proposal is far broader than the previously proposed Section 2704 Treasury regulations as this would apply to all property. The effect of this proposal is that the effective tax rate on the property is higher than the capital gains rate in effect because the disallowance of valuation discounts artificially increases the value on which the tax is imposed. This approach to valuation could result in inequitable proportions, for example, as applied to entities in which a class of ownership interests has economic rights that are subordinate to the interests of other classes, such as in a preferred partnership. Later in this article, we provide an example of the computation of the effective tax rate when this valuation rule is applied.
- Reporting: The Biden proposal would require these deemed recognition events be reported on the donor’s gift tax return, the decedent’s estate tax return or potentially on a separate capital gains return.
- Increased rates: The Biden proposal doesn’t just create new recognition events—it increases capital gains rates across the board for taxpayers with an income above $1 million to ordinary income tax rates. The Biden Green Book also proposes raising the top ordinary income tax rate to 39.6%. With the addition of the 3.8% net investment tax—the total federal tax rate on recognition would be 43.4%.
- Effective date: The Biden Green Book is calling for these gain recognition provisions to apply for all transfers occurring in 2022 or later. Recall that the STEP Act would have the provisions be retroactive to Jan 1, 2021.
It’s not clear how Biden’s proposal to tax transfers would be coordinated with state income taxation. Various states impose income taxes by conforming to the federal system. This means that in the absence of states taking action, these proposals could effectively create a death tax in states that don’t currently impose an estate or inheritance tax as well as a state level tax on lifetime gifts. On the other hand, the use of a separate reporting form may require states to act if they wish to piggyback on the tax collection or to prevent taxpayers from using the deemed recognition event to bypass state income taxation ahead of a sale.
Deemed Recognition Events
While the Biden proposal doesn’t directly attack the transfer-tax regime, it would curtail the benefits and flexibility of planning with intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs). Estate planners well know that a benefit of an IDGT is that the property that’s outside the taxpayer’s gross estate can grow income tax free during the grantor’s life as the grantor pays the income tax liability on the trust’s earnings. That benefit remains unchanged by the Biden Green Book. However, the flexibility afforded by the treatment of transactions between an IDGT and the grantor as disregarded for income tax purposes under principles set out in Revenue Ruling 85-13 will be impacted because Biden’s proposal captures these transfers as recognition events.
Biden’s proposal only excepts grantor trusts that are wholly owned and revocable by the grantor. By contrast, the STEP Act doesn’t trigger gain on transfers to grantor trusts that would be included in the estate of the grantor immediately after the transfer, which should include, for example, GRATs and qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs). For such trusts, the STEP Act provides that trust assets are treated as transferred for purposes of the gain recognition rules on any date that: (1) a grantor trust becomes a non-grantor trust; (2) property is distributed to someone other than the grantor; and (3) the property would no longer be included in the grantor’s estate. In the case of GRATs and QPRTs, this would result in an income tax event at the end of the initial term with respect to the remainder interest when the grantor survived the term.
A New GST Income Tax
Various Democratic tax proposals have taken aim at the use of dynasty trusts. A dynasty trust is one that’s GST tax exempt and has a long or indefinite perpetuities period. That is, neither state law nor the bite of transfer taxes will bring these trusts to an end. Obama’s proposals called for GST tax-exempt trusts to lose their exempt status 90 years after the creation of the trust. Sen. Sander’s For the 99.5% Act and Sen. Warren’s American Housing Economic Mobility Act of 2021 call for the exemption to be lost after 50 years.
Biden’s proposals don’t attack the GST tax-exempt status of a trust but instead provide for an income recognition event, stating “[g]ain on unrealized appreciation also would be recognized by a trust… that is the owner of property if that property has not been the subject of a recognition event within the prior 90 years…” The STEP Act has a similar provision, however: This recognition event would occur every 21 years and apply to all property irrespective of its holding period. Biden’s proposal would start counting 90 years from Jan. 1, 1940, meaning that a trust that was in existence in 1940 or earlier that has property not subject to a recognition event will have it recognized no later than Dec. 31, 2030 (90 years after Jan. 1, 1940). For trusts with assets that are regularly sold, this proposal won’t cause much of a tax issue. However, for trusts that hold real estate or closely held businesses, this could create a substantial liability that could prevent the wealth being passed down largely intact through multiple generations.
Running the Math
Numbers can lie, but are less deceptive than prose. Democrats frame the proposal to eliminate the step-up in basis as closing a loophole as though the step-up in tax basis on property included in a decedent’s estate was an unintended lapse in the law rather than affirmatively provided by statute. Republicans, on the other hand, describe it as job killing and unworkable system. In a July 21, 2021 letter to Biden, all 50 Republican members of the Senate criticized the president’s proposal.11 Using the failure of the carryover system from the 1970s that ultimately never went into effect as an example, the Republican Senators argue that it “will lead to colossal implementation problems and could also lead to huge tax bills that do not accurately reflect any gains…” Referencing a study prepared by EY that predated the Green Book, these Senators also claimed that the change would cost 80,000 jobs a year.12 As those who advise families know, the impact will depend on the specific taxpayer. For a decedent who dies holding high basis property, the impact will be negligible. However, for a taxpayer who dies with highly appreciated property with a low tax basis—death will be a taxable event, and some in the family may drop themselves when they see the bill.
To illustrate this, we considered the following scenario: A decedent dies domiciled in New York City (which imposes an estate tax and tax on capital gains) and owns, among other assets, an interest in a partnership that wouldn’t be considered a family business exempt from the recognition at death. The decedent’s basis in the partnership is $1 million and when they die, their pro rata share of the partnership assets is $5 million. Because the decedent’s ownership was a minority interest in a closely held business, the qualified appraisal prepared for estate tax purposes included applicable valuation discounts totaling 35%, resulting in an FMV for estate tax purposes of $3.25 million. The decedent has no surviving spouse and no charitable beneficiaries, so tax will be owed as a result of their death. To isolate the impact of the taxes on this asset: (1) the federal and state estate tax exemptions are assumed to have been exhausted; (2) the only deductions to be considered in the computation of the tax are deductions for the income and state estate tax liabilities created by death; (3) New York State and City will follow the federal government in assessing capital gains tax; and (4) tax rates used are the 2021 top rates for federal and state estate tax and state and local capital gains tax and the Biden proposed top rate for federal capital gains tax at 43.4%. While the calculation is oversimplified, the purpose is to illustrate the impact of a multi-tiered tax system.
Under current law, the death of the decedent wouldn’t be a recognition event. An election can be made under IRC Section 754 to increase the basis of a proportionate share of the property in the partnership. Estate taxes would be imposed on the FMV of the partnership interest ($3.25 million). The New York estate tax associated with this asset will be $520,000, and the federal estate tax (after accounting for a state death tax deduction under IRC Section 2058) $1.092 million for a total estate tax bill of $1.612 million.
Under the Biden proposal, the total tax bill will be more than $1 million higher—let’s look at how we get there. The first step is to compute the income tax liability as a result of the recognition of death. The value the tax is imposed on isn’t the $3.25 million FMV, but instead the $4 million gain (a $5 million proportionate share of the net asset value less the $1 million basis). The combined New York State and New York City income tax on this recognition event will be $494,165. With a 43.4% federal tax, $1.736 million will be owed in federal capital gains on the deemed recognition event. This results in a total income tax bill of $2,230,165.47.
While this is already higher than what the tax would be under current law, we’ve yet to compute the estate tax in this example. The estate tax value of the asset remains the appraised $3.25 million, and from that, we’ll reduce it by the income tax liability ($2,30,165.47) for a net value of $1,019,834.53. New York’s estate tax will be $163,173.52, and taking into account that figure as a state death tax deduction, the federal estate tax will be $342,664.40—for a total estate tax bill of $505,837.93. Combining the estate tax bill and the income tax bill—the total death tax is $2,736,003.40—that’s an effective tax rate of 84.18% when compared to the $3.25 million FMV of the partnership. Even if you disregard the valuation discounts despite their real impact on what the interest would sell for—the effective tax rate when compared to the net asset value of $5 million is still 54.72%, which is an increase from what would be a 32.24% rate under current law. As illustrated by the example, a second layer of tax at death in the form of a capital gains tax could have a significant impact on the tax paid by an estate with lower basis assets. By contrast, an estate of a decedent with $5 million of cash at death would see no change from this proposal.
Advising Clients
Biden’s proposals are interesting as they show the administration’s focus. However, the practitioner’s crystal ball still lacks clarity because it’s just another set of proposals in a near evenly divided Congress. For all the talk of potential retroactive gift taxes, elimination of GRATs and other transfer-tax proposals, it’s welcome news that they aren’t in Biden’s Green Book. This could be a strategic decision of where to deploy political capital given the transfer-tax exemption will decrease on its own in 2026 or perhaps indicative of a reduced emphasis on transfer-tax revenue more generally (query whether this proposal could be a replacement rather than an additive tax).
While impactful, hyperbole isn’t helpful to clients so practical planning solutions will be needed. The paradigm shift from an estate planner’s primary focus on transfer taxes to income taxes already happened nearly a decade ago with the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. This is just an additional shift within that paradigm. If (major emphasis on “if”) it comes to pass, it will have an impact on investment decisions as holding assets in anticipation of a basis step-up will no longer be a factor, and it could give rise to thinking about the allocation of the tax liability among beneficiaries. As always, with increased taxes and reporting obligations, there’s the need for multi-faceted thinking to effectively advise clients.
Even with the new proposals, many tried-and-true planning principles will apply. Just as estate planners use formula clauses with the marital deduction to defer estate taxes until the second spouse dies, allocating low basis property to surviving spouses to defer the recognition on death event could become a new planning technique. Likewise, for clients who have had philanthropic goals and wish to leave property to charity, low basis property could be used to fund those bequests similar to the common practice of allocating income in respect of a decedent to charitable beneficiaries. For clients who wish to use the high transfer-tax exemption amounts to make gifts but only have low basis property and don’t wish to recognize income given the lower proposed capital gains exemption, debt financing gifts could prove to be an effective strategy. By taking cash through a loan secured by low basis property, the client can gift the cash and recognize no gain on the gift, and the debt taken will be deductible for estate tax purposes. Finally, certain investment vehicles that are income tax efficient, such as life insurance (including private placement life insurance), could be an investment that would fare well under the new regime. As with each change in law affecting estate planning, there will be opportunity for planning and a greater need for valuable and effective advice.
Endnotes
1. Department of the Treasury, General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2022 Revenue Proposals (Green Book) (May 2021), https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/131/General-Explanations-FY2022.pdf.
2. For a detailed summary of the final Obama Administration Green Book, see James I. Dougherty and Eric Fischer, “Treasury Releases 2017 Greenbook,” WealthManagement.com (Feb. 12, 2016), www.wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/treasury-releases-2017-greenbook.
3. For the 99.5% Act, S. 994, 117th Cong. (2021), www.congress.gov/117/bills/s994/BILLS-117s994is.pdf.
4. American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2021, S. 1368, 117th Cong. (2021), www.congress.gov/117/bills/s1368/BILLS-117s1368is.pdf.
5. Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force Recommendations (July 8, 2020), https://joebiden.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/UNITY-TASK-FORCE-RECOMMENDATIONS.pdf, at p. 15.
6. Press Release, Biden for President, “The Biden Plan for Education Beyond High School” (Oct. 8, 2020), www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016d-ad62-dbde-a17d-ade69c880001.
7. Sensible Taxation and Equity Promotion Act of 2021 (Discussion Draft) (March 29, 2021), www.vanhollen.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/STEP%20Act%20discussion%20draft.pdf.
8. Ibid., Section 2.
9. President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Address to a Joint Session of Congress (April 28, 2021), www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/04/29/remarks-by-president-biden-in-address-to-a-joint-session-of-congress/.
10. Press Release, “The White House, Fact Sheet: The American Families Plan” (April 28, 2021), www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/28/fact-sheet-the-american-families-plan/.
11. Letter from Republican Senators to President Joseph Biden (July 21, 2021), www.thune.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/8951d087-ef78-4623-a38d-3ccbc359fb35/340FB04101F4D5172E58194B2DB886BB.letter-to-potus.pdf.
12. Ernst & Young, “Macroeconomic impacts and effects on illustrative family businesses, Prepared for the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition” (April 2021), fb.org/files/FBETC_Stepped-Up_Basis_Report_2021.