Obama's Budget Would Redistribute $112 Billion From Top 1% of Taxpayers

From The Tax Prof Blog:

True to his campaign promise to "spread the wealth around," President Obama's recently released budget targets high-income earners for income redistribution to low- and middle-income families, according to a new Tax Foundation report. The president's policies would redistribute an additional $112 billion from the top 1% of taxpayers down the income scale in fiscal year 2012.

On average, the president's budget would redistribute another $101,314 from families in the top-earning 1% to the rest of the income spectrum, for a total redistribution of $509,257 per family. ...

Families in the bottom-earning 10 percent stand to benefit the most from the president's policies. As a group, they'll receive an additional $8.7 billion in federal spending benefits. On average, a family in the bottom 10 percent will receive an additional $494 in income redistribution for a total of $17,962.

IRS Silent So Far On New US Tax Rules For Inherited Wealth

From TradeSignalOnline.com:

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is taking a wait-and-see approach on issuing guidance dealing with taxes on inherited wealth, unsure whether Congress will act in the next several months to change the rules again.

Advisers to the wealthy say they are left without a roadmap on a number of issues related to the disposition of assets left behind by those who have died since Jan. 1. In particular, they are looking to IRS for rules on how a new capital gains-tax regime that took effect this year will apply to estates.

"There are no forms that give us any idea how or what we are supposed to report," said Stephen Litman, an estate planner at the Minneapolis law firm of Leonard, Street and Deinard. "This leads to significant administrative challenges for families."

Congress is weighing whether to set permanent rules for taxing estates, and whether to make those rules retroactive to the beginning of this year, but such action is weeks, and maybe even months, away.

The 2001 tax-cut law was aimed at gradually eliminating estate taxes, but repeal proponents at the time lacked the congressional majorities needed to do so permanently.