Ray Madoff, a law professor at Boston College, addresses the upcoming expiration of the federal estate tax in an op-ed commentary in Saturday’s New York Times. He wants to retain the estate tax, but with a generous exemption for family businesses. “In order to ensure that this benefit goes to the right taxpayers, the law should require that both the transferring and receiving generations participate in the business or farm for several years and that the enterprise make up a significant portion of the estate…. For too long, the family farm and business issue has served as a distraction, preventing sensible estate tax reform. Congress should get this issue off the table, so that wealthy heirs can contribute their fair share.”
I understand that, a few years ago, the notion of an estate tax was placed on the defensive after Frank Luntz conducted focus groups that revealed a visceral opposition when the tax was described as a “death tax.”