Democrat in Ways & Means Committee Preparing Bill to Make Permanent 2009 Estate Tax Law Limitations
October 23, 2009

In what is considered by many to be the middle ground in the battle for repeal of the United States Estate Tax, Chairman Rangel (D-N.Y.), House Ways and Means Committee, stated yesterday (10/22/09) that his staff is drafting a proposal to make the current estate tax exemption equivalent and tax rates permanent. His goal is to make such a proposal after a break in the House schedule. According to Rangel, it is a high priority to make the estate tax law permanent and he will have the opportunity to discuss it at the next Democrat committee caucus meeting on October 27th or 28th.


Although the thought is that the proposal will fall outside of the statutory “pay as you go” requirements, in correspondence between conferees on the congressional budget resolution last April, Majority Leader S. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Speaker N. Pelosi (D-Calif.) said they would refuse to take from the Senate or accept a conference report that includes the estate tax, unless one of the three following provisos applied: statutory pay-go has been enacted; statutory pay-go language is included; or conventional budget scoring is used to pay for the items.


How a new estate tax proposal will be paid for remains to be seen.

If you have questions, please contact:
Charles B. Jones, Esquire

CJones@TandLLaw.com
(410) 752-2468