2010 Transfer Tax Changes

George D. Karibjanian (Attorney at Law, Boca Raton, FL) recently published his article entitled 2010 Transfer Tax Changes – Actual Reform or Repairing a Leaky Dike with a Band-Aid, Wealth Strategies Journal (Jan. 2011). The introduction is below:

The last session of the 111th Congress – the so-called “lame duck session” – was certainly an active session. This particular Congress was able to do something that neither the 109th nor 110th Congresses were able to do – pass pertinent estate tax legislation in the form of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the “2010 Act”). On the “importance” scale, the legislation rates a 12 out of 10; however, once the excitement and thrill of new legislation wanes, it becomes obvious that on a “permanence” scale, the legislation rates a 2 out of 10 because the legislation sunsets in less than two years. This article briefly discusses the pre-2002 law as to the estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer (“GST”) taxes, the changes presented to such taxes by the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (“EGTRRA”) (including the major changes for 2010 and beyond), the changes to such taxes made by the 2010 Act, technical issues not clarified by the 2010 Act, and what could happen to such taxes in 2013 and beyond.