Wolf and Allan discuss the changing federal estate tax landscape.
In a December 17th segment on CNN’s The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer and colleague Allan Chernoff began discussing the upcoming changes changes in the federal estate tax landscape. They point out that in just a few short days the calendar will turn and the reign of EGTRRA (the Bush tax cuts) over the estate tax comes to a close. No estate taxes will be owed on deaths occurring in the year 2010, but in 2011 the tax comes back at an even lower threshold, resetting to it’s pre-Bush rate of 41%-50% on assets over $1 Million. While all of this is perfectly accurate and well worth knowing, much of the commentary surrounding it was murky at best, if not just plain wrong. After the jump, some of the points that could use some tweaking: