Estate Tax Myths

Publication Date: October 2009

Publisher: National Center for Policy Analysis (U.S.)

Author(s): Bethany Lowe; Terry Neese

Research Area: Law and ethics

Keywords: estate tax

Type: Brief

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Congress is facing a tax deadline. Under legislation passed in 2001, the federal estate tax is being phased out: The tax rate is falling and the value of the property of the deceased that is exempted from the tax is rising. The tax is scheduled to disappear in 2010, but it will return in 2011 at pre-2001 rates - up to 55 percent for estates valued in excess of $1 million. The Senate voted in April 2009 to reduce the rate of the revivified tax to 35 percent, but the House of Representatives has not acted.