On March 28, Senator John Thune (R-SD) introduced S. 2242, the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act. The bill has 34 co-sponsors and mirrors H.R. 1259, the Bipartisan Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act, which was introduced in the House of Representatives in March 2011 and currently has 205 co-sponsors. S. 2242 would do the following:
- Repeal the federal estate tax for good.
- Repeal the federal generation-skipping transfer tax for good.
- Lock in a $5 million lifetime gift tax exemption and 35% gift tax rate.
Unlike H.R. 1259, which has a handful of Democrats as co-sponsors, all of the Senate co-sponsors of S. 2242 are Republicans. In his 2013 budget proposal, President Obama once again put his support behind a $3.5 million estate tax exemption and 45% estate tax rate. Even so, in this presidential election year don't count on any changes being made to the federal estate tax laws, even though it appears that the majority of Americans want to the see the tax repealed once and for all. If nothing is done, then on January 1, 2013 the estate tax exemption will drop from $5.12 million to $1 million and the estate tax rate will jump from 35% to 55%.
- S.2242 - A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes, and for other purposes.
- H.R. 1259 - Bipartisan Bill to Permanently Repeal Federal Estate Tax Introduced in the House
- Obama's 2013 Budget and Estate Taxes - Same Thing, Different Year
- Overview of Current Federal Estate Tax Laws
- Should the Federal Estate Tax Be Repealed?
- What is the Future of the Federal Estate Tax?