Tax Guru-Ker$tetter Letter

Monday, March 25, 2002

Pick The Right State To Die In

I have written extensively about how people choose their tax homes based on the state tax laws, often selecting states that have no tax on the income they earn while alive. Now, we need to consider where one will die because there could be large estate (aka inheritance or death) tax consequences. As has been well publicized, the Federal estate tax is being phased out, with a one year tax free opportunity to die in 2010.

Since most states piggy-back their estate tax laws on the Federal rules, many of them are scared at the thought of losing this easy money and are passing their own stand-alone estate taxes as described here in the Washington Post.

KMK
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 3/25/2002 12:05:00 PM Send this post: