I'm sorry I didn't provide well enough for you kids because I can't leave you anything like this:
"Much riding on future of estate tax; Loss of millions may sway end-of-life choices" by Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff / November 22, 2010
This year, death has not been followed by federal estate taxes, due to a quirk in the law. It has cost the US Treasury billions of dollars and fueled a battle in Congress, and it may be prompting end-of-life discussions in some of America’s wealthiest families.
Bluntly put, a very rich person could save his or her heirs a lot of money in taxes by dying before New Year’s Day.
Or they could kill him/her.
Starting Jan. 1, the federal estate tax is scheduled to return automatically after an unusual one-year hiatus, unless Congress takes action....
Oh, that is why this is the first priority for the lame ducks.
One package of tax cuts approved in President George W. Bush’s first term slowly blunted the estate tax, by stepping down rates while raising the number of estates exempt from the tax. By 2009, the top rate had been whittled to 45 percent, and the exemption pumped up to $3.5 million.
In 2010, the tax cuts called for a rate of zero. Almost nobody in the estate planning business expected the Democratically controlled Congress to let the year expire with no estate tax.
Yeah, there are a lot of things we didn't expect from the Democrats. That's why they are out!
Lawyers have warned their clients for months that Congress could pass a retroactive tax to cover 2010, but that’s now looking unlikely, specialists said.
The zero rate drew wide attention this year after the deaths of several American billionaires, including George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees. Steinbrenner’s wealth had been estimated by Forbes magazine at $1.15 billion, meaning that his heirs could conceivably have saved as much as $500 million in federal estate taxes.
I'm actually not that angry about this, for I feel the federal government should be collecting way less taxes period; however, one does begin to understand that the whole AmeriKan tax code and system is designed to take from the poor and give to the rich -- who can then funnel some of that loot back in the form of "campaign contributions" and lobbying fees.
But while heirs of the superrich saved huge sums this year, another quirk is about to expose more modest estates to the tax.
The George Bush-era income tax cuts are set to expire Dec. 31, which means the estate tax would snap back to an exemption level of $1 million. That’s a much easier number to hit than many people realize....
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So how is it going in the land of millionaires?
"Yesterday, House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer didn’t rule out backing a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts for households earning more than $250,000 a year. He said he plans to discuss it with Obama.
They COULD HAVE DONE THAT ANYTIME the LAST TWO YEARS, so WTF?!!!
“I’m certainly going to talk to him about how we move the ball forward,’’ Hoyer said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.’’
Ever hear of wrong-way Marshall, Steny?
And why were you guys thrown for losses the last two years?
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