What are the chances that Congress will repeal the estate tax once and for all?
It is anybodys guess what will happen to the estate tax, but one thing is for sure: Congress is not done tinkering with the estate tax law. Five years from now, the law will probably be very different from the way it is now, and the experts differ over whether the estate tax will ever actually be repealed. Many believe that we will end up with a relatively large applicable exclusion (perhaps $3,500,000; perhaps more), but that the estate tax is here to stay. All we know for sure is that we need to stay tuned for change in this area. In a whitepaper dated March 1, 2001, the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers summed up the history and the future prospects of the estate tax as follows: The history of the federal estate and gift tax system is one of repeated repeal, followed by re-enactment, interspersed with various reforms. Over the course of its history, the system has been repealed three times, only to be re-enacted when needed for revenue. In no case were estates grandfathere
