USA Today has a column written by Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Roy Disney who co-founded the Disney company with his brother Walt. Abigail says that as a person who inherited great wealth like other Disney children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, the federal estate tax is a wonderful thing.
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Forbes: “Any Momma who would ride the rails . . . probably isn’t worth shoving to a grisly demise. It’s the Mommas flying on their private jets who need to pack parachutes or watch their backs. Without a doubt, the one- year lapse in the federal estate is a boon to heirs [...] WebCPA: “with the passing of Boss George Steinbrenner, there may soon be even more reason to loathe the Bronx Bombers and all they stand for. The reason here isn’t some new ace pitcher they bought from another team, but rather the estate tax law.” Two stories in which the author’s speculate on what Congress will do about the federal estate tax. The first is “Be prepared for return of estate tax” which states “There’s never really a bad time to do estate planning. But in the months ahead, you may have an extra incentive to look [...] The New York Post has a story on the late Yankee owner George Steinbrenner’s last will and testament that was recently filed in a Tampa, Florida, probate court. The big question for the estate is whether Congress will enact a retroactive estate tax that applies to people like George Steinbrenner who die [...] Colorado attorney Lew Dymond, one of my favorite estate planning mentors, posted an article on the WealthCounsel blog about the consequences of the expiration on January 1, 2011, of the “Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001,” aka EGTRRA. Phoenix Business Journal: “When Congress returns in September, it will have four months to do what it has failed to do in the past nine years: fix the absurd situation it created for the estate tax.” For those of you who want to get down and dirty with respect to the federal generation-skipping tax, then “Time Traveling and Generation-Skipping in 2010 and Beyond,” is a must read. Here’s the abstract: “In this article, McCaffrey and Schneider look at the GSTT, its prospects, and the complications that the 2010 [...] Wealth Strategies: “[Dan] Duncan’s estate has been estimated by Forbes to be worth $9 billion. For those keeping track of such things, Duncan was ranked the 74th wealthiest person in the world. If he had died in 2009 with a top estate tax rate of 45% in place, his estate might have [...] The Heritage Foundation: “2010 is the only year since 1916 in which heirs to an estate will not have to pay the dreaded death tax. Victory for small businesses? Not yet—due to a legal quirk, the death tax is scheduled to come back to life in 2011. Studies, statistics, and real life [...] USA Today on U.S. estate tax law that allows millionaires and billionaires to die in 2010 and not pay any federal estate tax. “This loony state of affairs is the result of a tax law passed nearly a decade ago and the inability of today’s lawmakers to reach a sensible compromise. That [...] The Probate Lawyer Blog: “there’s another quirk about the estate tax law that makes it even less likely that the Steinbrenner family will ever sell the team. The estate tax loophole has a catch. In 2010, heirs of the very wealthy do not get to enjoy a typical tax savings called “step-up in [...] Wall St. Journal: “Did George Steinbrenner save his heirs millions by dying in 2010? Forbes recently estimated the Yankees owner’s net worth at $1.1 billion, largely from the YES network. The New York Yankees, which he acquired in 1973 for $10 million, are now worth $1.6 billion but are 95% leveraged due [...] Wall St. Journal: “The estate tax is set to come roaring back in January. That sets the stage for a perverse calculus: End it all—or leave a massive bill for your heirs to deal with. It has come to this: Congress, quite by accident, is incentivizing death. When the Senate allowed the [...] Wall St. Journal: “Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and three Senate Democrats Thursday proposed an estate-tax plan that would hit wealthier taxpayers harder than another proposal on the table. The estate tax lapsed temporarily on Jan. 1 after the Senate failed to extend it last year. If lawmakers do nothing, the tax [...] Taxanalysts: “Senate Finance Committee member Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said June 10 that he is ‘pretty close’ to gathering the 60 votes needed to pass a bill that would establish the estate tax at a 35 percent top rate with a $5 million exemption level.” New York Times: “A Texas pipeline tycoon who died two months ago may become the first American billionaire allowed to pass his fortune to his children and grandchildren tax-free. Dan L. Duncan, a soft-spoken farm boy who started with $10,000 and two propane trucks, and built a network of natural gas processing [...] Private Wealth: “The uncertain state of the transfer tax laws creates some tax planning opportunities, but many more pitfalls and uncertainties. Retroactive reinstatement is a possibility, although likely to engender constitutional challenges that will take years to resolve. How do these uncertainties affect most estate plans?” The U.S. tax law contains something called the generation-skipping transfer tax (GST). The GST is intended to prevent the transfer of wealth from one generation to a person of two or more generations below the giver without paying federal estate or gift tax. The GST applies when transfers of property by gift [...] The Tax Foundation: “The scheduled but nevertheless unexpected repeal of the federal estate tax in 2010 and the prospect of its reinstatement in 2011 bring debate over the estate tax, or ‘death tax,’ to the fore again. Some of the arguments are new: Would it be constitutional for Congress to reinstate the [...] The Hill: “An agreement has fallen apart on an estate tax proposal that had appeared resolved between Senate Democrats and Republicans, a lead negotiator said Tuesday.” The Hill: “Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) told reporters on Tuesday that his estate tax proposal is near completion. ‘It is our hope that we can get together both on the proposal, the details are pretty well resolved, and on a process by which we can get it passed as soon [...] Forbes: “First the family of Norman F. Levy . . . was swindled out of hundreds of millions of dollars by . . . Bernard L. Madoff . . . . Then Levy heirs coughed up $220 million to the Madoff bankruptcy trustee to repay personal withdrawals made before Madoff’s Ponzi fraud [...] Business Week: “Sure, heirs of the ultra-rich who die this year will get a break on estate taxes, but they could wind up paying even more in taxes on capital gains. . . . While heirs of the ultra-rich who die this year may enjoy an estate tax break (17,172 taxable estate [...] Financial Advisor: “Estate tax audits by the Internal Revenue Service are as aggressive as ever, and maybe even more so, despite the uncertain fate of the federal tax on estates of the wealthy. The tax agency is challenging the way assets are valued . . . . The average amount of additional [...] Forbes: “Worst case for wealth transfer: a $1 million exemption, plus a crackdown on planning techniques [such as GRATs]. Next year many more families may need to worry about federal estate tax and at the same time could have fewer ways to minimize its bite. . . .Some of the changes that [...] For an excellent discussion of the recent history of the federal estate tax, where it is today and where it may go in the future, see the Columbia Law School Magazine article by Daniel Gross called “The Estate Tax Mess.” “The so-called ‘death tax’ on estate transfers was repealed at the start [...] The failure of Congress to deal with the repeal of the federal estate tax before 2010 and the impact of new estate taxes and generation-skipping taxes beginning January 1, 2011, has created great uncertainty and confusion for wealthy Americans and their tax advisers. A 51 page article entitled “Estate Planning In Uncertain [...] Bloomberg: “Lobbyists for small businesses, construction companies, manufacturers and other trade groups are racing the clock to convince Congress to reinstate the federal estate tax they’ve fought for years to abolish. The National Federation of Independent Business and more than 40 business organizations wrote Senate and House leaders last week asking for [...] New York Times: “The estate tax isn’t dead. It’s resting. The tax has been eliminated for 2010, but the estates of people who die before the year is out may still not pass free and clear to their heirs. The complexities of the tax system and the likely return of the estate [...] |
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