01.11.10
Repealed!
It’s not as sweet as the repeal of Prohibition, but the Estate Tax has been repealed . . . for now . . . and only temporarily. Under convoluted earlier legislation, the Estate Tax was scheduled to go away as of 1/1/2010, but then scheduled to come back on 1/1/2011 with a mere $1 million exemption (in 2009, the exemption was $3.5 million). The 2009 Congress meant to act on it but failed, so right now, the Estate Tax is repealed for 2010 and will come back on 1/1/2011.
Important note: Many members of Congress, especially Democrats, want to bring back the Estate Tax during the next legislative section and make it retroactive to 1/1/2010. Such retroactivity, though, has constitutional hurdles.
We’ll see.
