Members of Congress may extend the 2009 estate tax provisions into 2010 while they develop a permanent estate tax structure.
Kenneth Kies, a tax policy specialist, made that prediction Monday here at the annual meeting of the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, Falls Church, Va.
Kies also warned that Congress could impose a $1 million-per-year limit on non-qualified deferred compensation, in an effort both to limit the effect of the alternative minimum tax and to pay for extending business tax breaks that are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
The cost of extending the business tax cuts for a year could be $50 billion to $70 billion, and the cost of minimizing the effects of the AMT on middle-income taxpayers could cost $60 billion to $70 billion, Kies said.
In general, the 2009-2010 congressional cycle could be "the most active tax legislative exercise that the country has ever witnessed," Kies said.
About $4 trillion in tax provisions will be expiring by the end of 2010, Kies estimated.
