Last week, Martin Vaughan (Dow Jones Newswires) reported that a House vote on the federal estate tax could come as early as this Wednesday. See here.
Many writers received the news and are sharing their excitement. In the opening paragraph from a blog post on November 30, 2009 -- Federal Estate Tax Bill Up for a Vote-- TAXGIRL finds words for shared feelings:
I, for one, am just reeling about the possibility that the House may vote on legislation to extend current estate tax rates. Shocked. I mean, there are, what, four weeks left until the end of the year? That’s just crazy.
TAXGIRL goes on to relate what I will term "the EGTRRA experience." Here is my summary of the strange trip:
- Certainty. When EGTRRA was passed in 2001, practitioners were certain that Congress was not going to let the exemption amounts rise and the rates fall. (See here for historical federal estate tax exemptions and rates.) TAXGIRL explains, "So it was going to be fixed. For real."
- Doubt. The certainty slowly changed to doubt. Practitioners started questioning whether Congress would ever act. Some proclaimed the death of the estate tax and others prophesied its return in 2011, as written in the Code.
- Excitement. Now, there is simply a sense of excitement.
TAXGIRL writes "I, for one, am just reeling," but she is not alone. Here are a few articles and posts that evidence the effects of EGTRRA:
- John Dimsdale, 2011 estate tax would slam inheritors, Marketplace (11/30/09).
- David A. Handler, The Future of the Estate Tax is Upon Us, On Wall Street (12/1/09) (writing, "The current situation is illogical and nonsensical. . . . We will have our answer soon.").
- Greg Herman-Giddens, Senate Bill Introduced to Hold Estate Tax at 2009 Levels, North Carolina Estate Planning Blog (11/30/09).
- Heritage Foundation, House Votes to Raise Estate Tax this Week (11/30/09) (clearly polemical). David Shulman has a great response in his post, The Heritage Foundation Deliberately Misleads (or in the Alternative is Embarrassingly Wrong) on Estate Tax Repeal, South Florida Estate Planning Law (11/30/09).
- Karen Meckstroth, House Could Vote Wednesday on Estate Tax Legislation, Bay Area Wills, Trusts & Probate Report (11/28/2009) (kindly reviewing Future of the Federal Estate Tax. Thanks!).
- Deirdre Wheatle-Liss, What is Going on with the Estate Tax?, New Jersey Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog (11/30/09) (kindly reviewing Future of the Federal Estate Tax. Thanks!).
- Steven M. Saraisky, Estate Tax Legislation - Down to the Wire, Tax, Trusts & Estates Law Monitor (11/30/09) (writing, "Lobbying groups predict it will be down to the wire, with any agreement occurring between December 23 and December 30.").
I wonder how many people turned on to tax law because of EGTRRA. "I, for one," am hooked.
