Posts tagged as:

federal-estate-tax

What’s Mine is Yours: IRS Issues Estate Tax Portability Guidance

30 September 2011

Last December, Congress pushed through a whole set of changes meant to make them look good on Election Day things easier for taxpayers. One of the changes was the new portability provision which allows spouses to “share” their federal estate tax exclusion amounts with each other. Each person is allowed an exclusion for federal estate [...]

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IRS Issues Extension for Form Not Yet Available (Thanks?)

14 September 2011

If you lost a loved one in 2010, my sympathies are with you. If you lost a loved one in 2010 that might have a taxable estate, my sympathies are really with you. The “surefire vote getting” one year repeal of the federal estate tax for 2010 has turned into one of the biggest administrative [...]

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IRS Releases Guidance (But No Form) for 2010 Estates

16 August 2011

Whew. It has taken awhile but the IRS has finally issued guidance for the treatment of basis for certain estates of decedents who died in 2010. As you’ve probably heard, there was no federal estate tax due for decedents who died in 2010. Well, er, sort of… Under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation [...]

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If At First You Don’t Succeed: Another Vote Scheduled for Tax Deal

10 December 2010

This one isn’t going down without a fight. After Democrats in Congress publicly defied President Obama by refusing to endorse the tax deal he negotiated with Republicans, the measure is going to another vote. On Monday, the Senate will take up a procedural vote to attempt to bring the deal to the floor. In response, [...]

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The Morning After: The Tax Deal Hangover

8 December 2010

I’ll admit that I didn’t see yesterday’s tax deal coming. I was fairly certain that the drama would play out through this week. We still have drama but now it’s more of the “let me explain” variety. Let me see if I can sort out for you what happened and why. First, let’s talk timing. [...]

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Permanent Federal Estate Tax Repeal: Making a Comeback?

20 October 2010

Quick pop quiz: what form of tax do most Americans claim to hate the most? Income taxes? Nope. Payroll taxes? Nope. Tax on alcohol? Tax on cigarettes? Nope and nope. It’s the federal estate tax. That’s a pretty remarkable statement considering that fewer than 2% of Americans are generally subject to the federal estate tax [...]

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Guest Post: PAYGO, the estate tax and the Bush Tax Cuts

1 September 2010

This week, I’ve asked readers to chime in on the Bush tax cuts. This guest post is courtesy of Stuart C. Wardlaw, CPA (for more on the topic, see the original post): On January 20, 2009, the Bush Administration handed over not only the keys to the White House; but also a box full of [...]

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Guest Post: Death to the Estate Tax

31 August 2010

This week, I’ve asked readers to chime in on the Bush tax cuts. This guest post is courtesy of Vinny Kochetta (for more on the topic, see the original post): I do not see an ethical basis for the estate/death tax. If a bazillionaire chooses to be frugal and pass his fortune to a child, [...]

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Bush Tax Cuts

30 August 2010

This week, I’m letting my readers take over and tell you what they think about the expiring Bush tax cuts. As always, I think background and context are important. So here’s a quick primer on what’s happening and why… The so-called Bush tax cuts are a series of tax breaks which were enacted in 2001 [...]

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What the Heck is Basis, Anyway?

20 July 2010

Last week, I committed a terrible tax blogging sin: I used jargon. I try not to use jargon on my blog. I find it annoying, for one, because who wants to actually sound like a tax attorney (no offense to my esteemed colleagues). But more importantly, what’s the point of reading a blog that you [...]

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