President-Elect Obama to Keep Estate Tax
January 13, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
President-elect Barack Obama plans to prevent repeal of the estate tax in 2010, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The tax was to be eliminated next year under a law Congress passed in 2001. Fund raisers follow the estate tax closely, according to The Chronicle, because many donors make large charitable bequests in part to avoid estate taxes. Repeal of the tax could remove that incentive to give.
The Obama plan would call for the estate tax to be frozen at its current levels, which exempts estates of $3.5-million — $7-million for couples — from any taxation. Estates above that amount would be taxed at 45 percent.
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