Dan Duncan’s Estate Passes Untaxed

When America’s first billionaire, John Rockefeller, died in 1937, his estate paid 70% in estate taxes. Since then, estate tax rates have fluctuated, but 2010 is the first year that the tax has been repealed altogether.

As I previously blogged, the death of Dan Duncan in 2010 cost the federal government billions of dollars. Although all of Duncan’s gifts to his wife and charities are untaxed regardless of the status of the estate tax exemption, Duncan’s Will leaves the bulk of his estate to his four children and four grandchildren. These gifts would have been taxable had Duncan died in either 2009 or 2011.

Duncan’s Will also made gifts to the Shikar Safari Club International Foundation and two family charitable trusts.

While some think that Duncan’s death will prompt Congress to enact a retroactive estate tax, it actually may serve as a deterrent to do so. “…Duncan’s heirs have the means and motivation to wage a fierce court battle to challenge the constitutionality of any retroactive tax.”

David Kocieniewski, Estate Tax Dormant, Billionaire’s Bequest is Tax-Free, N.Y. Times, June 8, 2010. 

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel), Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law), Peter Parlapiano (2011 MBA/M.S. PFP candidate, Texas Tech), and Kyle Wolf (J.D. Candidate, Texas Tech University School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.