Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

Q:

If the next Congress does away with the inheritance tax exclusions, if someone has already given away

part of his estate (against the now legitimate exclusion), I assume that will not be taxed retroactively.

What do you think?

And do you think the Democrats will work to repeal all the exclusions?

Thanks.

A:

I wouldn’t be so sure of that.  There used to be a time when laws weren’t changed retroactively.  That sense of fairness is no longer the case, especially for the Dems. 

One of the first things the Clinton-Gore team did when they assumed power in 1993 was to ram through a huge tax increase that they made effective retroactively to before they were even in office.  This included sticking it to Senior Citizens by raising the taxable portion of their Social Security benefits from 50% to 85%.  They are still very proud of this achievement.

When Hillary is coronated for her third term as co-president in 2009, we can expect the same kind of thing.  Repealing all of the Bush tax cuts has been a very explicit goal of the Dems, so we can pretty well kiss them goodbye when the Clintons move back into the White House.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

Thanks for your cheery reply.