Friday, March 1, 2013

Williams: Finally, A Permanent Estate Tax, Though Just For Wealthy Few

From Roberton Williams, in his article on Forbes.comFinally, A Permanent Estate Tax, Though Just For 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 from the Tax Policy Center show that in 2013, just 3,800 estates—fewer than one in 700—will owe the tax. And they’ll pay a total of just $14 billion—half the revenue collected five years ago.
With the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA), Congress set the effective exemption for combined bequests and gifts at $5 million, indexed that value for inflation, and allowed surviving spouses to claim any exemption not used by their deceased mates. It also raised the rate to 40 percent, 5 percentage points higher than in 2012.
The estate tax has endured nearly constant change over the past dozen years. The 2001 tax act (EGTRRA) reduced the tax in steps, raising the effective exemption from $675,000 in 2001 to $3.5 million in 2009 and cutting the top rate from 55 percent to 45 percent before repealing the tax entirely in 2010. Because EGTRRA expired entirely in 2011, the repeal lasted only one year. But rather than let the tax return to its pre-EGTRRA status, Congress set new parameters for 2011 and 2012: a $5 million exemption and a 35 percent tax rate. The tax reverted to 2001 law at the stroke of midnight last New Year’s Eve.
See Roberton's full article here .