dickersonlaw.com Blog

Estate Tax Uncertainty

November 10th, 2008

Now that the election is behind us and we have a Democratic President, House & Senate we can begin to speculate how this political climate will affect the estate tax or death tax as it is commonly referred to.

During the campaign there was much talk about eliminating the “Bush Tax Cuts” and “Redistributing the Wealth”. This leads me to speculate that the new administration and congress may return the estate tax to it’s prior levels of a maximum tax rate of 55% with a credit of only $1,000,000. This step would promote the ideas put forth in the campaign and provide additional tax revenue for all of these projects Mr. Obama wants to promote.

For the rest of us hard working entrepreneurs, it could mean disaster without proper planning. Lets first look at what’s included in the “Estate”: all of your assets, including real estate, businesses, personal effects, cash and accounts, and one people often forget, life insurance. For many of us it is life insurance that will put us over the top on estate tax. Ironically, life insurance is one of the best and easiest tools to combat this potential shift in the death tax. Through the use of Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts we can reduce or eliminate the estate tax burden on our families. Please go to www.dickersonlaw.com/inforequest.html for more information on life insurance trusts. Or contact me at 956-791-5422 or by email jmd@dickersonlaw.com

Entry Filed under: Estate Planning/Wills & Trusts, General, Tax