When Mr. Duncan died in March of this year with a $9 billion estate not alot was heard on talk news or news articles that his heirs will pay no estate tax and save about $4 billion. That doesn’t count the many millionaires that died in the last six months with a great tax savings for their families.
However, now that a public figure passed away, George Steinbrenner, many talk shows and news releases discuss that for the past 95 years we had an estate tax and in this year alone, 2010, there is no estate tax and this is the year that George Steinbrenner died with an estate of approximately $1.5 billion and his heirs saved about $800 million. Not only do the talk shows and news releases discuss the savings but also what was discussed was that on January 1, 2011, the estate tax comes back with only one million-dollar exemption and at a high rate of 55%. Only to show how ridiculous Congress was not to make any changes in December of 2009.
This caused many people to be aware of the estate tax situation and many comments are being made by those that are worried that on January 1, 2011, the estate tax comes back like a bear at only a one million-dollar exemption and 55% tax rate; and those that applaud the estate tax coming back on January 1 with such a roar.
The Senate is expecting to take up the small business lending bill this week. And now with this awareness and the public concern regarding the estate tax, as discussed above, maybe the Senate will discuss the attachment to the bill that Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Republican John Kyle of Arizona hope to attach to this lending bill. Both Senators plan to attach to the bill a change in the estate tax with a $5 million exemption indexed for inflation and a top rate of 35%.
Let’s see what happens this week.