On December 17, 2010, President Obama signed the new tax law, The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the “Tax Relief Act”) which settles important questions and concerns about the federal estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer (“GST”) taxes through December 31, 2012.
Under the federal laws that were effective until the end of 2009, there was a federal estate tax on estates up to $3.5 million per person and $7 million per couple with a maximum tax rate of 45%. According to the prior law, there was NO federal Estate Tax during the year 2010 and for the year 2011, there was only a $1 million exemption per person with the highest estate tax rate of 55%. With the passage of the Tax Relief Act, all of these old rules are replaced by the following federal estate, gift and GST tax provisions:
Read More
