Taxes Backgrounders & Briefs
02/01/2011
By Joseph J. Thorndike
February 2011
In the annals of American fiscal history, 2010 was nearly a tragic anomaly. Thanks to a legislative maneuver engineered by Republicans in 2001, the federal estate tax was slated to disappear on January 1, 2010, only to come roaring back on the first day of 2011. Few expected this one-year tax holiday to actually materialize; most thought Congress would approve permanent repeal well before the whipsaw deadline. In fact, though, lawmakers did allow the estate tax to disappear. And then, in the waning days of 2010, they seemed certain to let it return, too.
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12/10/2010
Darien B. Jacobson, Brian G. Raub, and Barry W. Johnson. Internal Revenue Service. 2009.
"The Estate Tax: Ninety Years and Counting", explores the history of the estate tax in America, and even refers to historical precedents reaching back to ancient Egypt. The authors include precedents from American history too, along with an overview of all the significant changes made in the law (up to the Bush tax cuts of 2001), and a primer on the policy details of the tax.
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03/18/2009
Nicholas Confessore. New York Times. March 18, 2009.
“Taxes Not Seen as Making the Rich Flee New York” explains that the taxes in New York, New York are relatively high, but rich people continue to flock there. Other incentives for the rich to live in relatively high tax areas include good public schools (which could be boosted by higher taxes), a thriving arts scene, or familial and community ties.
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04/09/2003
John R. Luckey. Congressional Research Service. April 9, 2003.
"A History of Federal Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Taxes" seperates the history of the estate tax into four distinct phases. 1) 1789 to 1915 (prior to the establishment of the estate tax as we currently know it), 2) 1916-1975 (creation and refinement of the tax as we know it), 3) 1976-1998 (the restructuring of the tax system), 4) 1998- (The recent assault on the estate tax).
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