Estate tax fight hinges on money, morality
From today’s Christian Science Monitor:
Opponents call it the “Paris Hilton Benefit Act.” Supporters wax lyrical about abolishing the “death tax.”
The wordplay is one indication that the Washington dispute over what to do with taxation of estates has become, to a degree, a moral argument.
And the volume of debate is rising, as Congress considers legislation that would permanently repeal the estate tax – affecting the Hilton Hotel heiress, other less visible millionaires, and the size of the federal budget deficit.
The issue arises from the 2001 tax-cut bill. That legislation gradually raises the value of an estate exempt from the tax, so that fewer people have to pay the tax over time. By 2009, only estates valued at more than $3.5 million will be taxed, and the legislation wipes out the tax entirely for 2010. But at the end of that year, the 2001 law’s estate tax provisions “sunset.” So the tax is reinstated in 2011, with an exemption for estates worth less than $1 million.