Where, Oh Where, Has the Estate Tax Gone?

Unless Congress changes the law, the federal estate tax will disappear on January 1, 2010. For the first time since the 1916 inception of the tax, the estate of anyone dying in 2010 will go to heirs tax free, a result of the 2001 tax law that phased out the estate tax over 10 years. But that law itself expires in 2011 and the estate tax will revert to pre-2001 law.