Conflicting Views on Indiana’s Proposal to Eliminate Inheritance Tax

As I previously blogged, Indiana legislatures are considering reducing or eliminating the state’s inheritance tax. Legislatures in favor of eliminating the state’s inheritance tax claim that the $150 million that the state will lose due to the eliminated tax will be made up from collections of online sales tax and growth in other revenues.

Proponents of eliminating the inheritance tax claim Indiana is losing wealthy individuals to states with no inheritance tax (like Florida). Many Republican legislatures have recommended the elimination of the inheritance tax for quite some time, but the problem of making up the lost revenues has always curtailed any elimination. Critics of the proposed tax elimination claim that eliminating the estate tax would cause income and sales taxes to increase.

For more information on Indiana’s proposed bills, see Indiana’s Inheritance Tax on Chopping Block, The Associated Press, Feb. 11, 2012.