Taxpayers prepare for income and estate taxes  Next week
lawmakers have to take care of the estate and income tax issue.
A year ago, many tax advisers and tax preparers were sure that
Congress would mend the estate tax before the year came to a
close. However, a decision was never reached, which caused the
estate tax to lapse in 2010, according to the the New York
Times.  There are only five weeks left to address the estate tax
before the holiday recess. If Congress does not come to a
decision on the estate and income tax issues, then they will
revert to the 2001 level, which is a 55 percent tax rate for
individual estates larger than $1 million. This will force seven
times the number of estates than usual to file estate tax
returns in 2011, according to the Tax Policy Center research
group. The center also reported that the individual exemptions
were $3.5 million and the rate was 45 percent in 2009.
Furthermore, 108,000 estates would file returns under the lower
exemption and 44,000 would pay tax with the ne