“The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” – Will Rogers
The US estate tax has a long history that stretches more than 100 years to 1914 when, during World War I, emergency legislation was passed to boost government tax revenues through the War Revenue Act of 1914. Since then, the estate tax has gone through 22 substantial legislative changes and almost 40 changes to the exemption and rate.
In 2011, the American Tax Payer Relief (ATRA) Act changed the rules for the gift tax, estate tax, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemptions by creating a unified exemption amount with a base exemption of $5 million. This base exemption is indexed for inflation. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) doubled these exemptions. However, the TCJA exemptions are scheduled to sunset after 2025 and revert back to those available under ATRA.
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