While it is still way too early to know what the Trump administration is going to do to change the federal estate tax laws, we do know President Trump stated on the campaign trail that he will eliminate estate taxes and we also know how Congress has acted in the past. So let’s have a little fun speculating and assuming.
When it comes to the estate tax issue, Republicans claim they are against this tax and Democrats favor it. However, the largest reduction of estate taxes occurred in 2011 under President Obama. During this time, the estate tax laws were amended to increase the exemption per person to $5,000,000 including an annual escalator of the exemption based on inflation. As a result, in 2017, the estate tax exemption has increased to $5,490,000 per person or almost $11M per married couple. Due to the amendments in 2011, the estate taxes today are the lowest ever and affect less Americans than ever before, approximately 0.5 percent of the population. Politically this has been a tough out, since it doesn’t affect most voters. Nevertheless, if your estate will have to pay estate taxes, you’d just as soon not.
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