What+Would+the+Bard+Say?

=chicagotribune.com=

What would the Bard say?
By Gary H. Barron January 15, 2009

As a result of promises made during the recent presidential election and the sorry state of the economy, tax reform will undoubtedly be a top priority for our new president and Congress. Although it has received little media attention, one section of the tax code that requires immediate reform is the estate tax. Simply stated, the estate tax, or, as it is fondly called, the "death tax," is a 45 percent tax on the deceased's net assets.

In 2001, Congress decided it might be fun to phase out the tax between 2002 and 2009 and have it disappear completely in 2010, only to rise again in 2011. That's right, anyone lucky enough to die in 2010 will be exempt from the death tax. One need not be a legal genius to see the absurdity of a single-year reprieve from the tax. A speaker before a Senate committee recently stated, "The potential behavioral responses to the one-year estate-tax holiday are too ghoulish to contemplate."

As a tax accountant with a literary bent, I envision scenes reminiscent of a Shakespearean tragedy unfolding across America, should Congress' lack of foresight not be rectified.

The scene, a hospital room in Denmark, Wis. As one of his attorneys stands vigil, an elderly gentleman lies comatose, attached to numerous machines and tubes. The senior attorney quietly enters. The time, 11:30 p.m. Dec. 31, 2010.

//** Lawyer 1: **//How now, what news?

//** Lawyer 2: **// Since last you visited naught has changed.

//** Lawyer 1: **// (Pointing at the clock on the wall) If he does not pass before our two-handed foe strikes midnight, all is lost.

//** Lawyer 2: **//What's done cannot be undone.

//** Lawyer 1: **// Still, options have we.

//** Lawyer 2: **//How sayeth?

//** Lawyer 1: **// Our dear old friend hath lived a long and joyous life and hath partaken of all fruits this world has to offer. A flick of one of the terminating members of your hand and yonder system supporting life would cease to provide breath to those withered lungs.

//** Lawyer 2: **// Nay. Speak not again of such things.

//** Lawyer 1: **// 'Tis not too late. Think thou of the ill will heaped upon us if the tax of the dead is not avoided.

//(The spotlight follows as he walks to center stage in a pensive mood and reflects.)//

To plug or pull the plug—that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler to the firm to suffer

The suits and actions from client's loss of fortune

Or to take steps against a sea of litigation,

And by disconnecting, end them? No tax, 'tis avoided,

No more; and by avoided to say we end

The headache, and the thousand possible actions

That heirs are prone to, 'tis an outcome

Devoutly to be wish'd. No tax, 'tis avoided;

If avoided! Perchance to save: Ay, there's the rub;

For in avoiding death tax, what fees may come,

When we have shuffled off rich elder to soil.

(Click) Alas, be not all my sins remember'd.

I think you get the point. Congress and President-elect [|Barack Obama] have their work cut out for them. And should nothing get done, we'll be telling our wealthier clients in 2010 to watch their backs.

//Gary H. Barron is a certified public accountant in Chicago.//