ESTATE TAX REPEAL MOVES FORWARD

By: Todd Shields Measure Gets Support From Key Senators


WASHINGTON -- Leaders of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee
late Friday revealed details of a bipartisan tax cut bill that
includes a phased-out elimination of the estate tax.

Following several days of negotiations, Committee Chairman
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, joined
in a bill that would lower top income tax rates and ease the so-
called marriage penalty, as well as end the estate tax after
2011. The measure could still be amended in the Finance Committee
when it meets next week.

It also could be changed by the full Senate, and later when a
Senate-approved tax bill is passed to a committee that includes
Senate and House negotiators. However, the two Finance Committee
leaders' backing marks Friday's agreement as a potentially
important step in the possible repeal of the estate tax.

The full House has voted for estate tax repeal, and President
Bush has repeatedly said he wants to eliminate the levy. Repeal
proponents say the tax is unfair because it is assessed against
assets built up over a lifetime of paying taxes.

Newspaper publishers say the tax, which is applied at rates up to
55%, forces newspapers out of family hands as heirs seek buyers
because they are unable to afford large tax bills. Opponents of
repeal say the tax is needed to help balance the federal budget,
and to avoid a concentration of wealth in society.



Todd Shields (tshields@editorandpublisher.com) is the Washington editor for E&P.



Related stories:
DEATH TAX REPEAL STILL UNDER CONSIDERATION (03/27/01)
BILL TO KILL DEATH TAX INTRODUCED (03/19/01)
BUFFETT, OTHERS WAGE BATTLE AGAINST ESTATE-TAX REPEAL (02/19/01)



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