Estate Tax Reform 2010 — Is It Over Yet?
DECEMBER 20, 2010 VOLUME 17 NUMBER 39 The ink is not yet dry on Congress’s tax and unemployment insurance compromise. Signed just last week by President Obama, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 has now become law. It continues previous income tax breaks for everyone, regardless of wealth. It […]
Estate Tax or Death Tax — Who Actually Pays Any?
AUGUST 9, 2010 VOLUME 17 NUMBER 25 Want to read about the debate over estate tax reform/repeal/reinstatement? There is plenty of literature. You can easily learn about the history of the estate tax (going back to 1797 in the United States, or to the 7th century BCE elsewhere). Want more? You can see the arguments […]
Estate Taxes, Crystal Balls and What Might Happen This Year
MAY 24, 2010 VOLUME 17, NUMBER 17 There is no estate tax in 2010. But there might be. When will we know? What should you do? Estate planning attorneys have joked darkly (as a group, we often have slightly off-kilter senses of humor) that 2010 is the year to die. Because of Congressional plans first […]
Some Medicare Recipients Will See a Rise in 2010 Premiums
OCTOBER 26, 2009 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 59 The Medicare program has announced its 2010 premium and coinsurance rates. As predicted, an anticipated increase in medical costs will mean a steep rise in Medicare-related premiums, but federal law protects most recipients from having to pay the new rates. One effect of changes in Medicare rate-setting over […]
Pension Protection Act of 2006 Includes Little-Known Benefits
NOVEMBER 13, 2006 VOLUME 14, NUMBER 20 Even as the recent national election was ramping up late last summer, Congress passed and the President signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Billed as a great boon to most workers, the Act may not have nearly the advertised effect—primarily because of a continuing shift away from […]
Court Strikes Down Ashcroft Directive on Assisted Suicide
MAY 31, 2004 VOLUME 11, NUMBER 48 In 1994 and again in 1997, Oregon voters approved the first law permitting physician-assisted suicide in the U.S. In each of the six years since the law was implemented, about 30 terminally ill Oregon residents have used the “Death With Dignity” Act to end their lives with the […]