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.
