The Wall Street Journal has an article today on Obama’s plans to keep the federal estate tax. Here are the highlights:
- The Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Max Baucus, will “move in the next few weeks” on addressing the estate tax. It is expected that he will advocate reversing current law, which would eliminate the estate tax in 2010.
- Democrats in favor of estate taxes believe that it will be harder politically to implement their plans if the estate tax is allowed to disappear in 2010. As a result, there is some urgency in addressing the issue this year.
- Obama will likely reveal his estate tax proposal in February when he releases his budget proposal.
- During his campaign, Obama’s plan kept exemption levels at $3.5 million (this year’s level) with a maximum rate of 45%.
- If the estate tax is repealed, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the loss to the government would be $500 billion over 10 years.
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