The Revenue Act of 1916 incorporated the estate tax into the tax law. The tax was originally intended to prevent large concentrations of wealth from being kept in a familyfor many generations. Whether this objective has been accomplished is debatable. Likethe income tax, estate taxes can be reduced through various planning procedures.The gross estate includes property the decedent owned at the time of death. Italso includes property interests, such as life insurance proceeds paid to the estate orto a beneficiary other than the estate if the deceased-insured had any ownershiprights in the policy. Quite simply, the gross estate represents property interests subject to Federal estate taxation. 11 All property included in the gross estate is valued asof the date of death or, if the alternate valuation date is elected, six months later. 12Deductions from the gross estate in arriving at the taxable estate include funeraland administration expenses; certain taxes; debts of the decedent; casualty losses 13incurred during the administration of the estate; transfers to charitable organizations; and, in some cases, the marital deduction. The marital deduction is availablefor amounts actually passing to a surviving spouse (a widow or widower).Once the taxable estate has been determined and certain taxable gifts made bythe decedent during life have been added to it, the estate tax can be computed.From the amount derived from the appropriate tax rate schedules, various creditsshould be subtracted to arrive at the tax, if any, that is due. 14 Although many othercredits are also available, probably the most significant is the unified transfer taxcredit. The main reason for this credit is to eliminate or reduce the estate tax liability for certain estates. For 2012, the amount of the credit is $1,772,800. Based onthe estate tax rates, the credit exempts a tax base of up to $5.12 million.
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