Taxation & Estate Planning

New Moves for Permanent Estate Tax Reform

By Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss, Esq.

Courtesy of Donald Vanarelli, Esq. Bipartisan Senate Bill Would Fix Estate Tax at 2009 Level

"Senate legislation, S.3284, was introduced July 17, 2008, by Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and George Voinovich (R-OH). The bill would create a lifetime estate tax exemption of $3.5 million, indexed for inflation, and impose a top tax rate of 45 percent." Note that this is the Estate Tax reform proposed by Sen. Obama (see What's the Tax Plan Mr. President in Waiting)

"That amounts to 11,000 estates by 2012. By comparison, 50,000 estates were taxed in 2001 when the tax started being phased out. "

On July 15, 2008 "Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced an estate tax reform bill in the House. H.R. 6499 would freeze the current $2 million estate tax exemption and impose other reforms, including providing for estate and gift tax reunification by permitting lifetime gifts up to a maximum of $2 million rather than the $1 million gift tax limit under current law. "

A link to the Senate bill can be found here - Senate Bill
A link to the House bill can be found here - House Bill

Full post as published by New Jersey Estate & Elder Planning Blog on September 03, 2008 (boomark / email).