The estate tax in the United States is a tax imposed on the transfer of the “taxable estate” of a deceased person.

Planning for the purpose of minimizing this tax is difficult because no one, including Congress, knows for sure what the rules are for 2011 and subsequent years.

The law in place for deaths occuring in 2010 is that there is no tax on the estate of individuals dying this year. This is the law no matter how large the taxable estate is.

If Congress desires, this law could be changed retroactively to Jan. 1, or any other date.

The highest rate of estate tax for a death occurring in 2009 was 45 percent. This rate was reduced to 0 percent for deaths occurring in 2010. For deaths occurring in 2011 and subsequent years, the highest rate is scheduled to be 55 percent.

Examples of taxes on various sizes of estates for persons dying in 2009, 2010 or 2011 are as follows.

4 Tax if a death occurs in 2009 and the estate is worth $1.5 millon to 3.5 million is zero. The estimated tax on an estate worth $5 million in 2009 is approximately $675,000.

4 Tax if a death occurs in 2010 on estates is zero.

4 For deaths in 2011 the estimated tax on a $1.5 million estate is $210,000. The estimated tax on a $3.5 million estate is $1.2 million and more than $2 million on an estate valued at $5 million.

These variances in taxes on deaths occurring from 2009 to 2011 are very large.

They also very well may change before this year is over or early in 2011 when there is a new Congress.

If variances from one year to the next are this large for estate taxes, we might all worry that income taxes could also vary just as much from one year to the next depending on the desires of Congress and the President.

Myles Hopkins is a certified public accountant at Silas Simmons, LLP. He can be reached at 601-442-7411.