To Be or Not to Be (Taxed): Estate Tax Lapse Incentivizes Morbid Considerations

Lauren Saunders and Mary Pilon of The Wall Street Journal have published an article discussing the "death incentive" created by this year's lapse in the estate tax.  The authors reflect that few Washington insiders never really expected that Congress would allow the tax to snap back to a 55% rate so quickly in 2011.  Nevertheless, it seems that this will indeed be the case since estate tax changes are usually avoided in election years; this means that heirs receiving their inheritances this year will escape what would have been hefty tax burdens in 2011.  Concerned relatives have, thus, found themselves in a disturbing dilemma on how to best plan their estates: some have begun to speculate that, as hopes for an estate tax fix are snuffed out, wealthy individuals may commit suicide or attempt to utilize the physician-assisted suicide services legal in three states and some European countries.

Posted by Joshua Hock, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal