Wall Street Journal: Obama Plans To Keep Estate Tax

As you know, if you are a client of mine - The Estate Tax or "Death Tax" has been fluctuating since 2001, with a future uncertain. Well, now the future is beginning to take form.

When President Bush was elected in 2000, one of his campaign pledges was to make the estate tax go away. And Congress did, in fact, pass legislation that would abolish the estate tax. Sort of...

What they passed, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGGTRA) enacted a series of increases in the amount of money your estate could be worth without paying “death taxes” — increases in the estate tax exemption, leading eventually to abolition of the tax during the year 2010.

However, EGTRRA sunsets, or reverts to the provisions that were in effect before it was passed on January 1, 2011 unless further legislation is enacted to make its changes permanent.

We may not have to wait long.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

Bottom line: if you expected the estate tax to actually go away, you were mistaken. As the laws change, it is important that you have your plan reviewed to make sure it is up to date. We can help you with this review. And if you haven’t yet created an estate plan, you should come and see us for a plan that takes all these new realities into account.