Obama Wants to Keep the $3.5 Million Estate Tax Exemption
Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on the latest buzz on what the Democrats would like to do with the federal estate tax. This summary is courtesy of Stephen Bigge, CPA:
-- President-Elect Obama and Democratic Congressional leadership are making a push to keep the estate tax in place before its repeal in 2010.
-- President-Elect Obama would like to permanently keep the estate tax exemption and estate tax rate at their current amounts (i.e. $3.5M exemption/45% estate tax rate).
-- Small-business owners, ranchers and farmers are still trying to make a push to repeal the estate tax, but are willing to compromise if the exemption is high enough or other concessions are made (e.g. bringing back the QFOBI deduction, increasing the Section 2032A special use valuation).
-- Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has been quoted as saying that he would like to have a permanent estate tax reform bill before Congress sometime within the "next few weeks" (separate from the economic stimulus bill).
