Estate Tax Take Little Changed

Despite higher exemptions of taxable estates and far fewer returns filed, revenue collected from the estate tax slipped only slightly from 2001 to 2005, the IRS said. The number of returns fell 58%, but total estate tax revenue declined only 8% to $21.6 billion. The phenomenon indicates that estates with less than $1.5 million, the exemption amount for 2004, account for a relatively small share of estate tax liability, the IRS said. The phenomenon is likely to persist through 2010 as the tax attenuates and disappears before returning in 2011 to levels of a decade earlier.