June 2010, and still no estate tax. Since I (and most other tax and estate professionals) believed we'd never see a no-estate-tax year in 2010, and were proven wrong, I'm more hesitant in my predictions these days. Still, I'll say that I doubt we'll see the House and Senate agree on any estate tax legislation this year, especially in what is becoming an election year where the incumbents are running for cover.
That leaves us with an estate tax of 55% that starts on estates over just $1,000,000 in 2011. This tax will affect far more families than it has before, so I believe there will be much more pressure next year to enact a "better" estate tax. There's a lot of support in Congress and the White House for the tax to start on estates over $3,500,000, so this may be the magic number. We'll see, but will likely have to wait until at least next year to see.
In the meantime, some people are taking advantage of 2010's tax-free possibilities by dying. I doubt they mean to do so, but it's beneficial nonetheless. It looks like the largest recipients so far are the family of the Texas oil pipeline billionaire, who left $9 billion to his heirs with no estate tax. They will pay capital gains tax on that $9 billion as it's sold, but I imagine they'll still have enough left to get by.
For those worried about the high estate taxes next year, we've put some aggressive plans in place, including one that reduced $750,000 of potential estate tax to zero! There are things you can do.
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