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State Estate Taxes: Windfall Gold in Expiring Tax Cuts

As Congress delays action on extending the 2001-03 tax cuts, state revenue officers may be secretly hoping for continued legislative paralysis. Why? Because the federal estate tax, repealed for this...

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Death Tax Revival Murders Yeoman Ranchers

Who needs death panels? Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) claims that ranchers and farmers in her state are planning on ending dialysis or other life-extending medical treatment before the end of...

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The Lame-Duck Congress: So Many Tax Issues, So Little Time

As usual in December, personal finance columns are filled with end-of-year tax advice—all those things you should do before New Year’s to cut your tax bill. But 2010’s end-of-year issues are different:...

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The Obama-GOP Tax Deal May Be Bipartisan, But It Isn’t Stimulus and It Isn’t...

A modest thought experiment: Here is a check for $858 billion. Your job is to boost short-term economic growth. What would you do with the money? President Obama and a huge bipartisan majority of the...

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Johnny Depp and the New Tax Law

When the President signs the big tax deal later today, will he be cutting income taxes for most families or sparing them a tax hike? Will he be slashing the estate tax or resurrecting it? Those...

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How Michele Bachmann Would Knock 20,000 Millionaires off the Tax Rolls

In a revealing interview with Steve Moore of The Wall Street Journal, Representative Michele Bachmann(R-MN) called for repealing taxes on capital gains. She also said she strongly believes that...

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The Coming Flood of Estate Tax Returns

 Fewer than 3,300 estates will owe federal estate tax this year, the smallest number in more than 75 years (other than 2010 when the tax disappeared for the year). But, paradoxically, even as Congress...

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Will States Tumble Over the Fiscal Cliff Too?

As Congress and President Obama continue to spar over how to avoid the looming fiscal cliff, most public attention has been focused on what tumbling over the edge would mean for the federal budget and...

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Give Now or Pay Later: The Ever-Changing Estate and Gift Tax

For over a decade, the federal estate and gift tax has been in constant flux with its exemption rising, its rates falling, and its near-death experience in 2010 followed by resurrection in a reduced...

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Finally, a Permanent Estate Tax, Though Just for the Wealthy Few

After more than a decade of nearly constant change, the federal estate tax is finally permanent. It’s a bit more onerous than last year’s version but still only a shadow of its former self. New tables...

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Same-Sex Couples and Taxes

The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was not primarily a tax law but it certainly affects the federal taxes that same-sex couples pay. In fact, taxes are the basis for the second of the two cases...

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Throw Momma from the Train

There may be no provision in tax law more bizarre than the estate tax. In just a year and a few days, on Jan. 1, 2010, the levy will expire and estates of any size will be passed on tax-free. A year...

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The Estate Tax: Hit and Myth

President Obama wants to maintain the 2009 rules on the estate tax—in effect allowing couples with assets of as much as $7 million to pass on their wealth tax free. Amazingly, this has some critics of...

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Death Panels and the Estate Tax

I’ve been struggling to understand the overheated rhetoric surrounding the proposal that allows Medicare to pay for end-of-life counseling. I think I get it now: It is all about the death tax. Here is...

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The Incredible Shrinking Estate Tax

The estate tax is only a faint shadow of its former self. In 2009, less than one-quarter of one percent of deaths—just 5,500 decedents—will leave taxable estates, the smallest percentage since at least...

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The Estate Tax Debate: Watch the Rate, Not the Exclusion

It is almost 2010, and Congress is scrambling to figure out what it is going to do about the estate tax. In some perverse way, it’s fun to watch lawmakers dive into a mess largely of their own making....

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Estate Tax Whiplash

Thanks to Senate gridlock, taxpayers engaged in estate planning will suffer whiplash over coming months as the federal estate tax disappears and reappears, possibly unexpectedly and retroactively. When...

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2010: Get Ready for a Tax-a-palooza

Let’s face it, from a tax policy perspective, 2009 was a bust. Except for creating a bunch of new credits in the name of economic stimulus, Washington pretty much ignored the revenue code. 2010 will be...

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Die Now

If you’re single, not in great health, and are worth a lot but not a really huge lot, you could do your heirs a favor and die today or tomorrow. Sure, you may want to hang around to ring in the New...

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An Estate Tax Deal: Pay Now, Die Later

News reports suggest that the Senate may soon consider restoring the estate tax with an option allowing people to prepay their tax before they die. Details are apparently still in flux as senators...

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