Article on How to Deal with the Repeal of the Estate Tax

Todd A. Flubacher recently published an Article entitled, How to Deal with Repeal: Dynasty Trust Planning Will Be an Essential Tool, Tr. & Est. 18 (March 2017). Provided below is an abstract of the Article:

Once again, it appears there’s a strong possibility that the federal estate tax and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax may be repealed. President Donald J. Trump and the Republican majority in the House and Senate all support a repeal of the “death tax.” One must only revisit the last time Republicans held control of the House, Senate and the White House in 2001 to identify the last time the estate and GST taxes were repealed under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA). EGTRRA was former President George W. Bush’s tax plan that gradually increased the gift, estate and GST tax exemptions from $675,000 to $3.5 million and lowered the tax rates from 55 percent to 45 percent, culminating in a single year of outright estate and GST tax repeal in 2010, followed by a “sunset” of the entire law on Jan. 1, 2011, returning the transfer tax system to its draconian pre-EGTRRA state. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (2010 Tax Act), signed into law on Dec. 17, 2010, established a $5 million exemption and 35 percent estate and GST tax rate beginning Jan. 1, 2011. However, heirs of wealthy individuals who died during 2010 benefited greatly from the only period in the last 100 years when our nation had no federal estate or GST tax. 

Unless Congressional Democrats have a dramatic change of heart, or Republicans pick up eight additional Senate seats in 2018, it’s safe to assume that any bill that includes estate tax repeal will sunset in 10 years. Without the vote of 60 Senators, the only way repeal can pass without getting blocked by a filibuster is to enact the law as a “reconciliation” bill, which, under Senate procedure, can’t last beyond 10 years. Of course, it’s also possible that repeal could be undone in as little as four years if enough Democrats are elected to the White House and Congress. Thus, any future transfer tax relief is likely to be only temporary, lasting as few as four and not more than 10 years.