Number: RL34418
Title: Estate and Gift Tax Revenues: Past and Projected in 2008
Authors: Nonna A. Noto, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: Data on both past revenues and revenue projections regarding the estate tax should be interpreted with awareness of the year-to-year changes in estate tax law from 1997 to 2011. The modest changes brought about by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (TRA, P.L. 105-34) were followed by big changes made by the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA, P.L. 107-16). Both laws provided for increases in the applicable exclusion amount, commonly called the estate tax exemption, as shown in the first column of Table 1. EGTRRA also gradually lowered the maximum marginal estate tax rate, from 55% (plus a 5% surtax in a certain range) in 2001, to 46% in 2006, and 45% in 2007-2009, as shown in the second column of Table 1.
Pages: 21
Date: March 19, 2008