Estate Planning and Tax Lawyer Blog

Well you may have heard yesterday that the “Super Committee” failed to reach an agreement on how to come up with 1.5 Trillion Dollars over the next ten years to reduce the nation’s debt. The “Super Committee” was formed earlier this year when Congress passed the spending bill to prevent the government shut down. Their mandate was to have a way to save money by November 23rd and then Congress had until December 23rd to pass a bill to enact the committee's recommendations.

It had been heavily rumored that the estate and gift taxes may be affected and lowered back to their 2009 levels. In fact, I had expected them to announce such a change this week. However, it was announced yesterday that they bipartisan group could not agree on how to cut spending or raise taxes in order to get to the 1.5 Trillion Dollar mark.

Although the “Super Committee” could not agree on how to come up with the numbers, they did state that they would pass onto Congress what progress they had made so far. Congress, under the spending bill’s mandate, has until December 23rd to pass a law to come up with the 1.5 Trillion Dollars. This means although the “Super Committee” failed, Congress still has the ability to act. This story is far from over…