What is the future of the Federal Estate Tax Law?
The following is what the current law provides. The Federal Estate Tax exemption is now $1,500,000, and the maximum rate is 47%. The exemption will increase to $2,000,000 in 2006, and to $3,500,000 in 2009. In the year 2010, there will be no Estate Tax. And, in the year 2011, the so-called “new law” will expire, and there will be reversion to the “old law”; the Estate Tax exemption will then revert to $1,000,000 and the maximum rate will revert to 55%. Over the last several years there have been attempts by the President and by certain members of Congress to either repeal the Federal Estate Tax, or to at least increase the exemption to be in the range of $3,000,000 – $5,000,000. Now, “all bets are off” as to whether there will be any change in the Federal Estate Tax laws. The momentum has stopped for significant change in the Estate Tax laws. The government is now facing hundreds of billions of dollars in clean-up costs for hurricanes in various states, continuing the Iraq War, and add
