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Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss, Esq. 1047 days ago
Category: Estate and Inheritance Tax From the Op-Ed Section of the Houston Cronical a pointed look at the federal estate tax in Worry about 'death tax' for the right reasons: "A couple of weeks ago, my 13-year-old son came home complaining about the death tax. It was his first foray into the murky quagmire of politics versus policy. He did the best he could. Did you know, he asked me, that if you die and leave me money, that the government will take half of it? That line of thinking floats around blogs, water coolers and holiday parties like conversational spam, so there's no telling where he picked it up. I calmly told him that he should be so lucky." The article goes on to describe the estate tax debate as "the stuff of political irony. It draws the ire of millions of people who are unaffected by it." as well as its limited reach to taxpayers in comparison to funds collected.
Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss, Esq. 1213 days ago
Category: Estate and Inheritance Tax Last night the US Senate voted against the minimum wage hike, estate tax reform, other tax breaks bill recently passed by the House in an effort to push through estate tax repeal for the third time in the past few months. From Bloomberg.com "Senate Republicans bet on luring Democrats into voting for a reduction of the estate tax by combining it with an increase in the minimum wage and popular tax breaks. Last night they lost. The Senate fell four votes short of the 60 needed to move forward on what Majority Leader Bill Frist called the ``trifecta'' legislation. ``The bottom line is that we bet on the wrong horses,'' said Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican. ``Maybe we should've taken a bet that was more likely to pay off.'' The Senate, just before recessing for the rest of August, did approve 93-5 a measure to overhaul the U.S. private pension system that now heads to President George ...
Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss, Esq. 1223 days ago
It seems that estate tax repeal has gone even further underground - can't get it done out in the open, then backdoor your way into it - ahh, the American political machine. Last week I wrote about a stealth estate tax repeal vote - that was again defeated. This week, we learn that the IRS is eliminating the positions of about 50% of the attorneys who audit estate tax returns. So, if you can't use the political process to eliminate a tax which only effects the top 2% of the wealthiest Americans, you eliminate the jobs of the people who are trained to enforce the tax? One of the reasons I often just want to shake my head. Courtesy of Charles Rubin, Esq. at Rubin on Tax: Rubin on Tax: IRS TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE TRANSFER TAX AUDIT STAFF: "IRS TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE TRANSFER TAX AUDIT STAFF The IRS intends to eliminate the jobs of almost half of the lawyers who audit gift and estate taxes. The IRS presently has 345 estate tax lawyers. The jobs of 157 of them ...
Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss, Esq. 1243 days ago
Category: Estate and Inheritance Tax In a different look on the estate tax repeal (or virtual repeal debate) Maya MacGuineas and Ian Davidoff in washingtonpost.com's Think Tank Town discuss the merits of repealing the estate tax and replacing it with an inheritance tax in "Tax Inheritance, Not 'Death'". Under current law, the federal estate tax is a tax on the amount of assets you own at death. The estate pays the tax, and the net balance is distributed to the beneficiaries. A person does not pay any tax on his or her inheritance. While I disagree with the article's summary of estate tax repeal opponents that "opponents of estate tax repeal have fallen back on a divisive class-warfare approach. The estate tax affects fewer than two percent of the richest Americans. Thus, they argue, the other ninety-eight percent of the population should oppose repeal." (see my prior posts of Truths about the Estate Tax - Debunking the Popular Myths, ...
Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss, Esq. 1250 days ago
Category: Estate and Inheritance Tax The on-again, off-again, on-again saga of federal estate tax repeal, is on hold again. Bloomberg.com reports in part: "Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist postponed a vote on a measure to exempt most multimillionaires from federal estate taxes after conceding Republicans lack the votes to pass legislation adopted by the House last week. The delay is the third since Frist began his quest to repeal or reduce the tax last year and the second time this month his ambitions were thwarted by Democrats who say the government needs the revenue generated by the tax. The House passed the legislation 269-156 on June 22 after Frist urged it to act before the Independence Day recess next week. [Senator John] Kyl said Senate Republicans are determined to pass the legislation this year, though they want to ensure they have the 60 votes needed to withstand a challenge by Democrats. Republicans control 55 seats in the chamber; 60 votes are ...
