Bloomberg: Capital Gains Tax a Bigger Issue Now That Estate Tax Is Gone

Bloomberg recently published an article highlighting the confusion real people are dealing with now that the federal estate tax is gone for 2010. Blanche Christerson, who is responsible for managing her ailing mother's estate, fears that she will be caught in a tax trap should her mother pass away this year. If Christerson's mother passes away in 2010, there will be no estate tax but the heirs will not get a stepped up basis in the assets they inherit. Whereas, in 2009, the estate would not have owed any federal estate tax since the estate was within the $3.5 million exemption and the heirs would inherit the assets with a stepped up basis.

Posted by Wesley J. Bailey, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.