As last year, I’ll be turning over the reins at taxgirl.com to my readers for the last week in August. This year, I’m offering you the chance to speak your mind about the proposed Bush tax cuts. As you know, unless Congress acts before the end of the year, there’s a lot set to happen….
This week, the death of George Steinbrenner rekindled discussions about the federal estate tax. As you may be aware, there is no federal estate tax for 2010. However, assuming that Congress doesn’t take action, next year the federal estate tax returns with a personal exemption of $1 million and a flat rate of 55%. Under…
On July 14, US Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) released a press release with a proposal to “permanently reform the federal estate tax.” Under the current scheme, there is no federal estate tax for 2010 but decedents’ estates for this year are subject to a set of complicated capital gains rules. Beginning…
One of my special interests has always been estate planning and the associated tax consequences (if you follow the blog, you may recall that I clerked at the IRS in the estates division). What you may not realize is that you don’t have to be rich to be subject to taxes at death – there…
Wow, they did it. The House really did vote on a federal estate tax bill. And it passed. The vote was narrow and partisan: in the end, 225 for, 200 against (see how your Representative voted here). The bill, HR 4154, was, as I blogged earlier, a compromise bill introduced by Rep Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)…
Scott Lovingood writes: Two specifics that should be addressed immediately. Stop double taxation 1) Eliminate the estate tax. You pay taxes on everything you make and then you get taxed again when you die? Tell me that makes any sense. 2) Stop taxing Dividends on personal accounts- Companies have already paid taxes on the profit…
It’s Fix the Tax Code Friday! Over at Only3Years, Iz contemplated the question of where she might be a year from now. The more I thought about this, the more I thought that it would make a superb Fix the Tax Code Friday… I’m constantly asked what I think will happen with respect to a…
Maybe it’s summer. Maybe it’s my grief over the UBS saga finally ending. Or maybe I’ve just been inspired by 1LPoet to find my inner poet. But it’s that time again. I feel some tax haiku coming on… In honor of today’s post: Oh Connecticut. Your tax burden is so high. Thank God for Jersey….
No doubt Imelda Marcos is sleeping peacefully tonight, dreaming of Prada and Fendi shoes… A Philippine court has acquitted her on five counts of tax evasion filed 16 years ago. Marcos allegedly failed to file a tax return and to pay $730 US in income taxes for 1985. But more seriously, she was accused of…
There is an interesting OpEd piece (free registration required) in today’s New York Times which critiques Senator Kyl’s plan for tweaking the federal estate tax. The basic gist of the piece is that the modified plan is overly generous and would be worse than passing a complete repeal of the tax. Hmm.