Friday, July 21, 2006

Will estate tax reform be grafted to pension reform?

According to Tax Notes Today ($) there may be an attempt to marry estate tax reform to the long-delayed pension reform legislation:
Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has said that Senate leaders have been pressuring him to include permanent estate tax reform in the conference agreement.

Democrats are not likely to be happy about that. On the other hand, characterizing the estate tax reform as "controversial" (Minority Leader Reid's word) is disingenuous. Estate tax repeal might be controversial, but reform hardly is.

3 comments:

JLM said...

Was I the only one who didn't know PETRA came up for another vote yesterday and lost? Pension bill sounds like an unlikely vehicle for a third try. Bill raising the minimum wage, as mentioned here, might have more horsepower.

Jim Gust said...

Tax Notes is not reporting on that vote. Was it a formal vote, or an attempt that was abandoned?

Jim Gust said...

According to http://youandyoursblawg.blogspot.com/2006/07/estate-tax-repeal-defeated-again-who.html what was defeated was an attempt at total estate tax repeal, not enactment of PETRA.