Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex) introduced H.R. 173, 114th Cong., 1st Sess. (Jan. 6, 2015), the “Estate Tax Repeal Act,” and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) introduced H.R. 186, 114th Cong., 1st Sess. (Jan. 7, 2015), the “Farmers Against Crippling Taxes Act,” which would repeal the estate, gift, and GST taxes, but not the basis rules of Code Sec. 1014 and Code Sec. 1015 . H.R. 173 has 55 co-sponsors as of this writing. Both bills were referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
These are meant to stimulate the debate about moving forward, perhaps along lines suggested in our recent posts. Certainly, the issue is starting to get renewed attention. It is always possible that we could be surprised, as we were two years ago, with a backroom negotiated deal which included some repeal and/or basis step up change, as part of a broader tax deal. Obama’s recent submission of corporate tax changes in the proposed budget could be bundled into some grand scheme-it’s happened before!