Federal Estate and Gift Taxes

[LiberalFighter]

Since 1977, less than 2 percent of adults who die each year have typically left estates large enough to be taxable. Because of recent increases in the amount of an estate
that is exempt from taxation, a relatively small percentage of estates are taxable today. In 2007, 17,400 taxable estate tax returns were filed; most were for deaths in 2006, representing about 0.7 percent of adult deaths in that year. The average tax rate for taxable estates—calculated as the estate tax liability divided by the value of the net taxable estate (the value minus certain deductions, such as charitable bequests and bequests to a spouse)—has remained near 25 percent since the 1940s, even as the share of estates subject to the tax fluctuated because of changes in the value of the effective exemption amount.




Source: CBO

[amborin]

1. 2010 will be a "generation-skipping" boondoggle year for the wealthy:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x68129

[pnwmom]

2. The first sentence is misleading. Most people with large estates take measures

such as charitable gifts, to avoid having their estates being subject to estate tax. They would rather the money go to selected charities than to the government. So to get a real sense of the numbers that would be subject to the tax, you'd need to know how many had estates that were large enough BEFORE they gave assets to charity.