U.S. House votes to repeal estate tax

Jun 1, 2015

By Sara DeForge Hough
Government Relations Manager | NNA

WASHINGTON—After 10 years of attempts and compromises, the U.S. House has passed legislation to fully repeal the federal estate tax.

H.R. 1105 passed by a vote of 240-179 including seven Democratic members voting in favor, three Republicans voting against and 12 members not voting. The bill, introduced by Reps. Kevin Brady, R-TX, and Sanford Bishop, D-GA, passed the House Ways and Means Committee in early April.

Identical legislation has been introduced in the Senate (S. 860) by Sen. John Thune, R-SD, but has not yet seen any action beyond introduction.

An amendment to the budget resolution, introduced by Thune, was passed earlier this year by a vote of 54-46 that would create a deficit neutral reserve fund to repeal the estate tax. Although the budget amendment votes are non-binding, they serve as a statement of Senate policy. 

Currently, the federal estate tax provides for an exemption of $5.34 million per person, indexed for inflation, with a 40 percent tax rate for all remaining assets of the estate. Current law was established by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

sara@nna.org