Posted on 06/19/2006 10:52:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The House's top tax writer revealed a proposal Monday to reduce taxes on inherited estates and rewrite a quirky law that repeals the tax for only one year.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., introduced the bill after Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee asked House GOP leaders for help reducing the estate tax before this fall's midterm elections.
Frist lost a bid this month to push forward legislation repealing the tax, unable to overcome opposition from most Democrats and a pair of Republicans.
Under President Bush's first tax cut, the estate tax decreases through the decade as the size of an estate exempt from taxation increases and the top tax rate decreases. This year, $2 million of an individual's estate and $4 million of a couple's is exempt from taxation. The remainder can be taxed at rates as high as 46 percent.
Bush's law abolishes the tax in 2010. But that temporary law expires a year later, and the estate tax reappears. Without a new law, an individual's exemption falls to $1 million and tax rates increase to 55 percent in 2011.
Thomas would instead increase the exemption to $5 million per person, or $10 million per couple, beginning in 2010. A surviving spouse could use any portion of the $5 million exemption not used by his or her deceased spouse.
Estates worth up to $25 million would be taxed at rates equal to capital gains rates, currently 15 percent. Estates worth $25 million or more would be taxed at rates twice those in place for capital gains, currently 30 percent.
The structure of the proposal matches one advanced in the Senate by Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican who has worked for a year to try to strike a compromise with Democrats interested in lowering estate tax rates.
Kyl, however, proposed taxing estates worth up to $30 million, instead of $25 million, at capital gains tax rates. Thomas also included a new deduction for capital gains on timber in his bill.
Frist has said he wants to see a bill completed by the end of the month, before lawmakers recess to celebrate Independence Day.
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On the Net:
Ways and Means Committee: http://waysandmeans.house.gov/
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
I don't mind abolishing it after they pay off the national debt that is owed by the people who are passing away.
As conservatives we should want to pay off our debt.
So IMO we should leave it with the direction of most all the income going to our debt.
The big hurdle would be to get politicians forbidden from accessing the assets away from debt repayment.
Once that is done, abolish it. Don't leave the debt to grand kids, that would be pathetic of us.
PS, I know the post above this will not be popular, because it is much easier to take the easy money than it is to be responsible for ourselves.
How many people are going to die of "unknown" causes in December of 2010?
Seems we have been through this discussion before. Still hung up on the national debt I see.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
If you confiscated all the assets of everyone over 10 million and applied it to the national debt it wouldn't make a dent in it.
Eliminate the unconstitutional social federal programs and the debt is gone in a few years.
Elect a congress that is fiscally responsible!
The feculent death tax is still in place, and much more of a burden than most people realize.
A friend of mine died eight months ago, thinking that his lawyers had made the best possible arrangements to minimize the death tax and to provide for a smooth transfer of his assets to the family.
Since a few of his most recent acquisitions were not specifically listed in the trust, the Fed. used them as an opening to pry into everything, the estate is still in probate.
His kids are not starving, they are successful in their own right.
But dragging the estate through the hands of lawyers and the Fed for month's is draining away ever more of the original amount, his widow is in poor health, so the Fed. will likely hit the jack-pot again in a short time.
You're nothing but a socialist!
Government (you) aren't entitled to one cent of anyones estate.
I couldn't agree more. The worst case I've heard of was with a farmer who had not made much money, but had a large amount of farm land. He had not planned for the estate tax at all, because he was never cash rich. When he died, it bankrupted the sons he left the land to because they had to sell a third of the property to pay the tax. It's bad law designed to punish people for achieving the American dream!
The Republicans should play hardball. Tell the Dems they agree with the estate tax, and that is why they are going to get rid of the trust laws and any other law that allows a family to not pay estate tax. Make it retroactive so all trust are null and void.
Lets see if the Dems really believe in the estate tax.
It's time for the FairTax!!!
The words congress and fiscally responsible when used together are a serious contradiction in terms.
Not a good strategy! Perhaps you haven't read the story of how we came to "get" the income tax in 1913.
I agree that there should be some fair tax where everyone pays something.
Where maybe it is attached to the purchase of new goods except for food.
There's lots of helpful information there on many, many different topics. Check the FAQs and Rebuttals for example. the mechanism it offers will eliminate the gift, estate, and income taxes and provide a very simple and cost-effective method of raising the revenue required, It also has a feature called the prebate which ensures that no one pays an effective tax rate for things up to the poverty level.
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