Death, Taxes and Politics: The Future of Tax Policy Ahead of the 2024 Election
Washington concluded an eventful legislative session with the largest set of tax increases in the state's history. This Update focuses on two significant changes that affect Washington residents and a senate bill proposal...more
Last Thursday, New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera, who represents the 33rd District (basically, the northwestern quadrant of The Bronx), proposed legislation that seeks to collect more taxes from the State’s high-income...more
“Déjà vu All Over Again”- The White House last week released the President’s Budget for the Fiscal Year 2023. The Budget is ambitious, but its “investments,” we are told, “are more than paid for with tax reforms focused on...more
Counting the Days?- We are 302 days away from the national mid-term elections, to be held November 8, 2022, yet the first full week of the new year has already highlighted some of the economic issues with which the...more
Tax the Rich? The President’s plan for a tax regime that would ensure the rich pay their “fair share” of the cost of implementing his programs has come one step closer to being realized . . . maybe . . . well, sort of ....more
President Joseph Biden and the Democratic majority in Congress are working on a $3.5 trillion tax and spending package that could dramatically increase taxes on the wealthy. In addition, new proposals are being floated almost...more
First Step- Last Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee approved that portion of the 2022 budget legislation with which it was tasked by the Congressional Budget resolution of August 24. The text of the bill...more
The Estate Planning Team at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP issues advisories regularly to communicate important law changes and other matters of interest to our clients, their advisors, and our friends. The 2020 presidential...more
A Night to Remember? Did you listen to the President’s speech last Wednesday? He addressed a joint session of Congress to pitch the Administration’s $1.8 trillion American Families Plan. Due to COVID-related...more
New York’s Governor Cuomo is having a bad 2021. Some may attribute this to his hubris or to karma; others may point to an emboldened, and now veto-proof, progressive State Legislature; many will claim that Mr. Cuomo is paying...more
According to Justice Learned Hand, “Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to...more
Are the rich making enough of a contribution to society? Are they bearing their fair share of taxes? Many New York legislators don’t think so. Following the elections of November 2020, the State’s Democratic party secured...more
On March 25, 2021, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the For the 99.5 Percent Act (the “99.5 Percent Act”) which proposes to modify the estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax. Proposed Estate and Gift Tax Rates...more
Estate tax “reform” continues to be a prime objective for Democrats. On the heels of more and more talk in Washington about the inequality of the U.S. tax system, Senator Bernie Sanders has just introduced legislation to...more
Last Friday, The Wall Street Journal published an alarming Op-Ed piece concerning a California Bill, AB 2088, that would impose a wealth tax on any person who spends more than 60 days inside the state’s borders in a single...more
The Convention- The Democratic Party’s “virtual” convention last week seems to have gone pretty well. All the stars of the Party’s firmament were on hand and spoke in “virtually” one voice in their assessment of the...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our lives and shifted our priorities in an unprecedented manner. Against this backdrop of uncertainty, though, opportunities in estate planning abound. Basic planning documents, such as...more
Recently, several of the presidential candidates and other prominent Democrats have suggested a number of different tax policy proposals, including wealth taxes, mark-to-market taxation, a VAT, additional taxes, increased...more