1. I can authoritatively report, from a couple of different sources, that the “tax reforms” that are now going through Congress attached to some other legislation have nothing to do with estate or gift tax. They’re essentially about some Bush-Tax-Cut related benefits for business that expired 1-1-10, and the legislation would revive them and make them permanent, along with as couple of similar things related to individual income tax.
2. The bill that passed the House late in 2009 got first and second readings in the Senate and was assigned to committee, where it has since died. The problem is, that bill did two things. It not only made the 2009 levels permanent, but it also repealed the repeal (if you will) of the estate tax for 2010 and applied the 2009 scenario to 2010. As time has gone by, there is less and less political will to do the latter, so the question going forward would be whether it would be easier to strip that part from the House bill, or simply start over.
3. So anyway, while it appears that the 2010 “repeal” is probably cast in stone. the issue of whether we’ll have pre-Bush rules or 2009 rules for 2011 and after is still open, and as of mid-May at least, Congress had yet to consider that. There’s some thought that they may extend the 2009 regime, at least for a few years, before they adjourn for the midterm elections, but some sources say there’s bipartisan support in the Senate to go to a $5 million unified credit and a 35% rate, so we may be back to the same old problem that derailed us last year, i.e., there’s nothing that can get 60 votes.
4. Obama originally supported making the 2009 scheme permanent, but according to one source, he’s now waffling a little bit because of the deficit, and saying maybe we ought to soak the rich a tad in order to help finance the middle class tax relief he still wants to do. You may recall that he appointed a blue ribbon deficit reduction commission, and now he’s saying he isn’t going to take any position on tax reform until after they’ve reported, which isn’t due until December 1. That will give Congress another reason to do nothing.
| Tweet |
|
