HOUSE REPORTEDLY SET TO VOTE ON ESTATE TAX BILL PERMANENTLY SETTING 2009 LEVELS

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote during the week of November 30th on a bill recently introduced by Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) That would make permanent the 2009 estate tax rules.

The House vote will come Wednesday, December 2nd, “at the earliest,” according to Dow Jones Newswires. It is assumed that by “The House” the news service is referring to the House Ways and Means Committee, to which the bill was referred when it was introduced November 19.

Pomeroy’s Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers and Small Businesses Act of 2009 (H.R. 4154), which is backed by the Obama administration, would set the exclusion amount at $3.5 million and freeze the estate and gift taxes rate at 45 percent. H.R. 4154 is Rep. Pomeroy’s second legislative initiative aimed at fixing the federal estate tax. H.R. 436, which he introduced in January 2009, would also extend the 2009 rules indefinitely but in addition would have a “far reaching effect on gift and estate tax valuation,” according to a paper by Jonathan Blattmachr and Scott Nammacher. Emory law school professor Jeffrey N. Pennell has reportedly said that “H.R. 436 is ‘garbage.’ It has been introduced in the last two Congressional sessions, has no other sponsors, and has gone absolutely nowhere.”

The new Pomeroy bill would cost $233 billion more than current law over the next 10 years. Dow Jones reports that “In addition, there are enough opponents of the Pomeroy bill to block action in the Senate.”

Source: www.elderlawanswers.com