Proposed Estate Tax Measures in Response to Estate Tax Repeal

Although the time to address the scheduled estate tax repeal continues to shorten and congress continues to focus on other more pressing issues, some legislators have introduced estate tax measures.  NACSOnline, in a recent post entitled Deadline Looms on Estate Tax Repeal, Sept. 4, 2009, has provided a summary of the proposed measures:

• H.R. 436 – Rep. Earl Pomeroy (ND-at large):
Makes the current exemption of $3.5 million and the rate of 45% permanent. (Estates between $10 million and $23.5 million would be taxed at 50%.).

• H.R. 96 – Rep. Michael Conaway (TX-11): Increases to $1.85 million the maximum reduction amount for alternative valuations of farmland and other business property for estate tax purposes; and restores after 2009 the estate tax deduction for family-owned business interests and increase such deduction to $2 million. Allows annual inflation adjustments to such increased amounts after 2010.

• H.R. 173 – Rep. John Salazar (CO-3): Excludes from an individual’s estate farmland so long as the land continues to be used for farming. To exclude such farmland from the total estate, the individual must have earned 50% of their gross income from farming in at least 3 of the 5 years from the individual’s last tax year and during 5 of the 8 years prior to the individual’s death the land must have been used for farming. If the land is subsequently sold or no longer used for farming a tax will be applied on the heirs.

• H.R. 205 – Rep. Mac Thornberry (TX-13): Repeals the federal estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes.

• H.R. 498 – Rep. Harry Mitchell (AZ-5): Restores the unified credit against gift tax liability; provides for annual increases in the estate tax exclusion amount between 2010 and 2015 and establishes a permanent exclusion amount of $5 million for 2015 and thereafter; provides for an inflation adjustment to the estate tax exclusion amount after 2015; reduces estate tax rate brackets; and allows a surviving spouse to use the unused unified estate tax credit of a deceased spouse.

• H.R. 2023 – Rep. Jim McDermott (WA-7): Sets a $2 million per-person exemption, indexed for inflation, and imposes a 55 percent top rate.

• H.R. 3524 – Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-1): Prevents the value of inherited farmland from being subject to the estate tax if the decedent’s family continues to own it and farm it.