While the odds of passage are still long, Illinois
Democrats aren't ready to give up $200 million in state estate tax revenue next fiscal year. Forbes' Ashlea Ebeling is reporting
that there is legislation pending in Springfield to reinstate
Illinois' estate tax -- which applies to the transfer of estates over $2
million in value once the principal dies -- and apply it retroactively
to January 1, 2010, when it first expired.
House Majority Leader Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) told us in
May that she would likely take up the proposal during the veto session in November.
Ebeling further reports that the legislation would "tie the Illinois exemption to
the federal estate tax exemption, whatever that may be, starting next
year." That makes the revised scope of the federal estate tax, which
Congress will likely establish this summer, crucial. On that
front, Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and three Senate
Democrats proposed a progressive
estate tax plan yesterday that would set an exemption $3.5 million for an
individual but would impose increasingly higher tax rates on
multi-millionaires and billionaires. This revenue is needed more than
ever to pay down growing deficits, so keep an eye on both bills
closely.
