Estate tax applies to untaxed wealth  Laura Davis Patterson
Posted: Monday, September 19, 2005  The column by Ed Feulner
(Forum, "Death tax unfair to families," Sept. 5) uses the common
marketing technique of calling the estate tax the "death tax,"
and arguing it should be eliminated because the heirs of all who
die will have to pay the tax. This is not true, and I am sure
Feulner knows it.   Print-ready version   Send to a friend
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Forums  The estate tax does not apply to most of us. Currently
an estate of less than $1.5 millions is excluded from the estate
tax. That will rise to $2 million in 2006 and to $3.5 million in
2009. If Congress does not act to keep these limits, the amount
will revert to the smaller amount that was excluded in 2002. The
reversion provision was included to hide the true cost of
raising the limits on a taxable estate. Congress is not likely
to allow the reversion to happen.  Heirs to an estate get a cost
basis in inher