{"id":3929,"date":"2009-12-31T12:22:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T12:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/estate-tax-update\/"},"modified":"2009-12-31T12:22:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-31T12:22:00","slug":"estate-tax-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/libertarianism\/estate-tax-update.php","title":{"rendered":"Estate Tax Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congress is apparently not going to fix the odd dynamics of the estate tax<\/a>, with awkward implications:<\/p>

Starting Jan. 1, the estate tax -- which can erase nearly half of a wealthy person's estate -- goes away for a year. For families facing end-of-life decisions in the immediate future, the change is making one of life's most trying episodes only more complex.<\/p>

\"I have two clients on life support, and the families are struggling with whether to continue heroic measures for a few more days,\" says Joshua Rubenstein, a lawyer with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in New York. \"Do they want to live for the rest of their lives having made serious medical decisions based on estate-tax law?\"<\/p><\/blockquote>

The greater challenge will toward the end of 2010 if Congress has still failed to act:<\/p>

Under current laws in effect until the end of this year, the size of the exemption is $3.5 million per individual or up to $7 million per couple. The tax is slated to disappear entirely on Jan 1. ...<\/p>

The estate tax is scheduled to return in 2011 at a 55% rate with an exemption of slightly more than $1 million.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Thus, next December, heirs will face a strong incentive to pull the cord on ederly relatives.<\/p>

The right policy is to make repeal permanent.  The estate tax punishes saving relative to spending and serves mainly to prop up the incomes of estate tax lawyers and accountants.<\/p>

\"\"<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congress is apparently not going to fix the odd dynamics of the estate tax, with awkward implications:Starting Jan. 1, the estate tax -- which can erase nearly half of a wealthy person's estate -- goes away for a year. For families … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libertarianism"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}