The Wall Street Journal had an interesting story about how, despite the fact that it appears that the estate tax will be significantly rolled back or even permanently eliminated by the federal government, state governments are not so eager to give up that revenue.
“Connecticut just approved a law that includes higher taxes on many large estates,” the WSJ wrote. “Washington state enacted a new estate tax to replace one a court struck down this year. And North Carolina took action to prevent the scheduled demise of its estate tax at midyear.
“These changes come on top of moves by numerous other states in recent years to protect their own lucrative estate and related taxes, which otherwise would have dried up because of a federal tax law change enacted in 2001. That law called for a total repeal of the federal estate tax in 2010, after a phase-out period -- and then a resurrection of the tax in 2011.”
In fact, according to the Journalm one-third of the states have taken action to shore up their own estate-tax systems – which means that any federal rollback of estate taxes will be watered down by the state moves.
“Connecticut just approved a law that includes higher taxes on many large estates,” the WSJ wrote. “Washington state enacted a new estate tax to replace one a court struck down this year. And North Carolina took action to prevent the scheduled demise of its estate tax at midyear.
“These changes come on top of moves by numerous other states in recent years to protect their own lucrative estate and related taxes, which otherwise would have dried up because of a federal tax law change enacted in 2001. That law called for a total repeal of the federal estate tax in 2010, after a phase-out period -- and then a resurrection of the tax in 2011.”
In fact, according to the Journalm one-third of the states have taken action to shore up their own estate-tax systems – which means that any federal rollback of estate taxes will be watered down by the state moves.
- KC's View:
- Can’t you just image people dragging the bodies of their soon-to-expire loved ones across state lines so that they can die someplace with lower estate taxes?
