Rep. King says Congress should retroactively kill estate tax if no deal this year

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Thursday that Congress and the next president need to work together to ensure that higher estate taxes are not reinstated in 2013, and called for a retroactive solution next year if necessary.

"If Congress cannot come to an agreement on the death tax before the New Year, it and our next president should make it clear that we will eliminate the death tax retroactively to Jan. 1," King wrote in an op-ed Thursday.

King noted that estate tax forms can be filed up to nine months after someone dies, which means there is still time to repeal it in 2013.

The estate tax is one of several areas of tax law that will change at the end of this year without some broader agreement on tax reform. Republicans have called for a further extension of the Bush-era income tax levels, as well as extending lower taxes on investment and preventing the alternative minimum tax from expiring.

Currently, the first $5 million is exempted from the estate tax, and the top rate is 35 percent. If no agreement were reached, only the first $1 million would be exempted, and the top rate would be 55 percent.

King said the issue with the estate tax is the ability of people to give their children businesses or other assets without intrusion from the government. King said minimizing this intrusion helps keep these businesses around longer.

King noted that he sold his own construction business to his son, and said if he had died first, that business may not be around today.

"If the IRS had confiscated more than half the assets of King Construction, my son would not have had the opportunity to build on his father's life's work," he said.

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