Under Obama Tax Deal, 2011 Could Be Best Year For The Rich

From Forbes.com:

If the Obama-Republican tax deal passes, 2011 could turn into the best year yet to be rich, tax wise. The capital gains tax, a key rate for the very rich, will remain at its historically low 15%, while the top ordinary income tax rate will stay at 35%. The 2010 $800 per couple Making Work Pay credit, which wasn’t available to the better off, will be replaced by a Social Security tax cut that will save a two-high-earner couple $4,272 in 2011. Meanwhile, the estate and gift tax regime will become even friendlier to wealthy families.

Friendlier? How could wealth transfer taxes be any friendlier? After all, under the Bush tax cuts the estate tax disappeared in 2010 (for just one year) allowing families of billionaires who died this year, including Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and Metromedia founder John Kluge, to inherit free of federal estate taxes.

True enough. But for a family to benefit from that one year lapse, a (presumably) loved one had to actually die. For 2010, the amount a still breathing rich person can transfer to his kids or grandkids without owing taxes remains the same as a decade before: just $1 million.

By contrast, under the version of the Obama-Republican deal introduced late Thursday by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the exemptions from the gift tax, estate tax and generation skipping transfer tax (the tax imposed on gifts to grandkids if their parents are still alive) are “unified”–meaning they’ll all rise in tandem in 2011 to $5 million, from the $1 million or so they would have been next year after the Bush tax cuts expired.

SNL on the Obama-GOP Tax Compromise

Check out this video from over the weekend where SNL mocks the Obama-GOP tax compromise. In a spoof of a Presidential address, “Obama” explains why after being taken hostage he changed his opinion on the trickle down theory, and expresses dissatisfaction about Bristol's stint on Dancing with the Stars.

Hat tip: TaxProf

Moody's May Cut US Rating on Tax Package

Yesterday Moody's sent out a warning that the proposed tax compromise could cost up to $900 billion, and that the resulting increase in federal debt could hurt the US government’s credit rating. Not exactly good news for the US.

CNBC reports:

The plan agreed to by President Obama and Republican leaders last week could push up debt levels, increasing the likelihood of a negative outlook on the United States rating in the coming two years, the ratings agency said.

A negative outlook, if adopted, would make a rating cut more likely over the following 12-to-18 months.

For the United States, a loss of the top Aaa rating, reduce the appeal of U.S. Treasuries, which currently rank as among the world's safest investments.

"From a credit perspective, the negative effects on government finance are likely to outweigh the positive effects of higher economic growth," Moody's analyst Steven Hess said in a report sent late on Sunday.

After Obama announced his plan, Treasury prices fell sharply in volatile trade last week and yields have hit a six-month high, in part due to concerns over the effect the package will have on government debt levels.

If the bill becomes law, it will "adversely affect the federal government budget deficit and debt level," Moody's said.

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