Perry and Cain, both contenders in the race to be the next Republican candidate for president, are proposing massive overhauls of the current progressive income-tax
We’ve been glued to the news for the past few years trying to figure out what Congress is going to do next with the Estate Tax. More uncertainty has been the answer. Currently, we are living under an estate tax approach that is due to die on December 31, 2012. What follows is anybody’s guess.
Now though, all eyes are on the upcoming presidential election. Accordingly, it is the new crop of candidates we’re watching, and there’s quite a fight brewing.
Both Herman Cain and Rick Perry have come out with massive tax overhaul plans leaving many to wonder which plan would be cheaper and for whom. Since this blog post is about the estate tax, it’s worth noting that the biggest similarity involves doing away with the estate tax.
Indeed, each of the major potential Republican candidates has come out strongly against the estate tax with each, except Jon Hunstman, signing the American Family Business Institute’s (AFBI) pledge to repeal the estate tax. [Sidebar: Huntsman doesn’t like signing pledges, even if he also doesn’t care for the estate tax.] The two current representatives, Rep. Michele Bachman and Sen. Ron Paul, put forward their own separate bills to repeal the estate tax.
Repealing the estate tax is one of the few pillars of agreement in conservative politics today. However, President Obama is not keen on doing away with the estate tax, so we can expect the issue will become a flashpoint during the presidential election.
What’s going to happen? How can we plan our estates in the midst of all this certain uncertainty? Even if you have full faith in a Republican victory, regardless of the candidate, their bills still have to make their way through what may remain a divided Congress. Simply put, it’s possible that we haven’t seen anything yet when it comes to the political squabble that is the Estate Tax.
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Reference: MarketWatch (October 25, 2011) “Perry flat tax vs. Cain 9-9-9: How they’d hit you”