State of the Estate Tax

Here's an interesting chart from a New York Times blog that shows the percentage of estates that have been subject to estate taxes since it's formal inception in 1934. Actually, today is a relative all-time low, due to the current $3,500,000 estate tax exemption ($2,000,000next year).

However, if the Exemption goes back down to $1,000,000 in 2011, you could see the amount of estate subject to estate taxes shoot up to pre-2001 levels. However, as you can see, this would not even come close to levels in 1976.

New York Times Blog