Congress often boasts that they enact taxes reduction. What they mean is that they reduce tax rates. Taxes are calculated as (i) taxable income (ii) multiplied by the tax rate. If rates are reduced but the calculation of taxable income is changed (i.e. deductions are reduced), well, actual tax paid can still go up. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) implemented a 3.8% “Net Investment Income Tax” to provide funds to pay for the US government’s support of the heath care insurance

In Part I of this blog, we reviewed the effect of the Senate-passed estate tax law changes, and how the new law would reduce estate tax for about 2,700 estates per year. For eight years. The bill also provides that the increased estate tax exemption applies only for 2018-2025…after 8 years the 2017 law magically re-appears. How do taxpayers plan now? It would seem unwise to change any planning that addresses the current law since, well, we just don’t know! This blog is not in

Although the Senate and House versions of the sweeping 2017 tax law changes need to be reconciled prior to sending the bill to the President’s desk, the Senate version of the 2017 tax legislation, approved last night by a 51-49 vote (Senator Corker of Tennessee the lone Republican to stand up to his party), increases the estate tax exemption (and also the Generation Skipping Tax exemption) from $5,490,000 per taxpayer to $10,000,000, starting in 2018, and then indexed for inf