Washington State Department of Revenue raises "death tax" from the grave

Evergreen Freedom Foundation ^ | 11-5-04 | Bob Williams

[truth49]

By passing Initiative 402 in 1981, voters thought they had abolished this state's inheritance taxes. In reality the inheritance tax was abolished in favor of an "estate tax." This estate tax is also called a "pick-up tax," because the amount payable in the state estate tax was equal to the amount that one could credit against federal estate tax obligations. For example, if an estate received a $25,000 tax credit toward any federal excise taxes, it would owe $25,000 in Washington estate taxes. In other words, there was no net cost to an estate, and the state simply "picks up" the amount saved in federal taxes.

In 2001, the federal government took a key step toward abolishing the federal estate tax by increasing the size of taxable estates to $1 million in 2002 and ultimately eliminating the estate taxes by 2010. The federal government partially financed the federal breaks by cutting the credit for state estate taxes paid. The credits dropped to 75 percent of state taxes in 2002; 50 percent in 2003; 25 percent in 2004 and will drop to 0 percent in 2005. Because of this federal tax code change, states faced a tough choice: forgo estate tax revenue or impose an estate tax that would cost real money and might drive wealthy estate holders away. Twenty-five states including California, Texas, and Florida followed the fed's lead and are only collecting the "pick-up tax" revenue.

Unfortunately for Washingtonians, DOR announced (without legislative approval) that the threshold for filing and paying Washington state estate taxes would be reduced from $1,000,000 in assets to $700,000. This conflicts with existing state law (RCW 83.100.050) which states, "No Washington return need be filed if no federal return is required."

[Grendel9]

Sounds like all the legal lawyers (those gifted in making sense out of the fine print!) either fell into the Pacific
or were in cahoots with the MSM out there to keep the actual
meaning of the proposition secretive.