Estate & Gift Taxes

Estate and gift taxes are used to tax large transfers of wealth between individuals. Gift taxes are imposed on transfers made during an individual''s lifetime, and estate taxes are imposed on transfers made at the time of death. Although gift taxes and estate taxes are paid separately, they are a unified tax in the sense that a single graduated rate schedule applies to the cumulative total of taxable transfers made through gifts and estates. The 2001 tax cut legislation enacted by Congress and President Bush gradually phases out the estate tax over ten years but revives it after sunsetting at the end of 2010. Since the law does not treat the gift tax entirely the same (the gift tax is never fully repealed, for example) the two taxes are no longer fully unified. The effective marginal tax rates decrease gradually from 2001 through 2010 but generally range from around 38% to 44%, after accounting for the credit for state estate taxes. (The 2001 law replaces the credit with a deduction in 2006). This book gathers important information on issues directly concerned with estate and gift taxes.