federal estate tax

With unemployment climbing and available federal dollars declining in 2010, the need for charitable giving seemed greater than ever, but gifts made during the year were actually down. According to a recent article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, charitable gifts at the top of the spectrum, those...

Many taxpayers think of capital gains as something restricted to Wall Street: buying and selling stocks and bonds. In reality, almost everything owned for investment purposes or personal use may be considered a capital asset for income tax purposes. Common examples of capital assets include stocks...

When I was in junior high school, I met a boy who changed my life. His name was Adam. No, it's not what you're thinking. You see, I grew up in the rural south. Before I met Adam, I thought we were poor. My parents struggled to pay the bills at our house, but we always had food on the table. We had...

Less than a week after the midterm elections, politicians and special interest groups are both plotting their next moves. With an overwhelming majority of voters citing the economy as the deciding factor in the election, both parties realize that some kind of change is inevitable for the coming...

When the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA 2001) was signed into law by President Bush, many expected that years of fighting over a permanent repeal of the federal estate tax would finally be over. Under EGTRRA 2001, the personal exemption available under the estate...

Can you put a price on a life? We tend to think that life is priceless. But as 2010 draws near, with the federal estate tax set to repeal, some wealthy families may think that you can put a price on it after all.

When Congress passed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA), many championed the "repeal" of the federal estate tax. What wasn't widely advertised at the time was that the repeal was for a single year. That single year of repeal begins in 10 days. Under the terms of EGTRRA,...