subject: How Does The Estate Tax Repeal Affect My Last Will And Testament [print this page] The estate taxes are actually imposed at both the federal level and the state level as well. Essentially these taxes are what your beneficiaries and heirs will be subject to once you pass on. So for example lets say that you have accumulated a great deal of assets and have an attorney create your Last Will and Testament. In your Will you designate that the majority of your estate will go to your spouse and the remainder will actually go to your brother. Well, the way that the tax laws are structured is that the surviving spouse will actually not be subject to any sales tax. This is just something that Congress believes that is significant and important in order to protect the surviving spouse from taxes. However, the brother that you leave the remainder of your estate to actually will be completely subject to the estate taxes.
It was decided by Congress that in 2010 there would be a complete repeal of the estate tax. The reasons for them doing this is actually not clear but its tax implications on the Last Will and Testament is huge. Essentially, whoever passes away in 2010 their beneficiaries and heirs will not be subject to estate tax. However, once 2011 comes around then the estate tax comes back again. So if your Will was created prior to 2010 and also you pass away in that year then what will happen is that your estate will be completely sheltered from estate tax. Once the tax actually comes back it is usually advised for individuals is to utilize the services of an attorney in order to utilize the latest in tax saving strategies in order to reduce the amount of tax that will have to be paid to both the state and federal government.
