A few stats on the estate tax
Oklahoma’s estate tax ends today, and the federal version will disappear in 2010, only to reappear in 2011 by the strange quirk of a 2001 law that Congress has not fixed.
I’m not going to get into the merits or drawbacks of the estate tax, which is called the “death tax” by its critics. But according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the state’s estate tax snagged 10,083 filers in fiscal year 2009 (figures for earlier years were not available today).
Here’s a chart on the amount of revenue Oklahoma’s estate tax has brought in from FY 1986 to FY 2008:
Source: Oklahoma Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports
As you can see, the revenues have been declining for the last few years, although I’m curious why so much was raised in 2004.
This is long period, so it helps to adjust the revenue figures for inflation. Here’s the same information, this time in 2008 dollars:
Source: Oklahoma Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports; Author's calculations
At the federal level, the estate tax has affected a much smaller slice of Oklahoma taxpayers. Here’s the numbers, compiled from the IRS Statistics of Income Division.
Keep in mind, amounts are in thousands of dollars, so what you see below for 2008 for the net estate tax would be $170.9 million from 138 Oklahoma filers who were subject to the federal estate tax (click image to see a larger version):
Source: IRS Statistics of Income Division
–Paul
Written by Paul Monies
Follow @pmonies
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