Conrad Teitell Comments on Lack of Estate Tax Reform
Summary
Members of the Senate Finance Committee:
Democrats Republicans
Max Baucus, MT, Chairman Chuck Grassley, IA, Ranking Member
John D. Rockefeller, IV, WV Orrin G. Hatch, UT
Kent Conrad, ND Olympia J. Snowe, ME
Jeff Bingaman, NM John Kyl, AZ
Blanche L. Lincoln, AR Jim Bunning, KY
John F. Kerry, MA Mike Crapo, ID
Ron Wyden, OR Pat Roberts, KS
Charles E. Schumer, NY John Ensign, NV
Debbie Stabenow, MI Michael B. Enzi, WY
Maria Cantwell, WA John Cornyn, TX
Bill Nelson, FL
Robert Menendez, NJ
Thomas R. Carper, DE
The oil spewing into the Gulf can’t be stanched by legislation. But you can by legislation immediately calm the troubled waters created by Congressional inaction on the estate tax.
On November 14, 2007, I testified as an invited witness — with a businessman from Iowa, a rancher from Nevada, and an oracle from Omaha — at your hearing, “Federal Estate Tax — Uncertainty in Planning Under the Current Law.” My charge as the only estate planning lawyer on the panel was to describe how my law firm deals with the uncertainty of changing exemptions and rates through 2009, estate tax interruptus in 2010 (but with a gift tax and modified carryover basis) and a return of the estate tax in 2011 and beyond.
At that hearing, senator after senator lambasted the law’s uncertainty — but you were criticizing the very law that Congress had enacted.
Now that the law has lapsed for 2010, the uncertainty is magnified — for those planning their estates and those administering estates of individuals who have died this year. In some cases, heirs may not receive their intended shares of an estate or be disinherited altogether. Under the law of unintended consequences, testamentary charitable remainder trusts created by individuals who die this year may not qualify as charitable remainder trusts. And a donor who creates an inter vivos charitable remainder trust this year could actually be deemed to make a gift to himself — subject to the gift tax.
Oil spills are unimaginably difficult to clean up. But you have it in your power to immediately clean up the untenable mess that Congress has created for Americans who are struggling to plan and administer estates.
This letter represents my personal views and does not represent the official view of my law firm or any organization to which I belong. No client has engaged me to make these comments to you.
Respectfully,
Conrad Teitell
Chairman, Charitable Planning Group
Cummings & Lockwood LLC
Six Landmark Square
Stamford, CT 06901
Phone: 203-351-4164
Right Fax: 203-708-3840
cteitell@cl-law.com
Admitted in NY and DC
cc: Staff: Jonathan Selib, Tiffany Smith, Theresa Pattara, Josh Gardner, John E. Castro, John Fetzer, Derek B. Dorn, Anna Taylor, Kathleen M. Kerrigan, John J. O’Neill
III, M. Jeff Hamond, Colleen Einhart Briggs, Michael Daum, Ryan McCormick, Justin Field, Chris Pendergast, Kathy Nuebel Kovarik, Evan Liddiard, Bill Pewen, Dan Brandt, Karin M. Hope, Michael D. Quickel, Jennifer R. Cook, David Kirk Kavanaugh, Tori Gorman, Andrew Siracuse
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