For more than a century, the U.S. tax system has largely focused on taxing income when it is earned and wealth when it is transferred. Today, a growing number of proposals at both the state and federal levels are exploring a different approach: taxing wealth during an individual’s lifetime.
While the future of these proposals remains highly uncertain, their increasing number and scope raise important questions for individuals and families with significant wealth. Current proposals vary considerably in their thresholds, tax rates, frequency, and treatment of assets and trusts, and each could carry different implications for long-term wealth and estate planning.
In this article Senior Client Advisor David Ferraro examines the current landscape of federal and state wealth tax proposals, the rationale behind wealth-based taxation, and some of the political, practical, and constitutional questions surrounding these policies. He also considers what this evolving conversation could mean for families as they plan for the future.
Click below to read the full paper and explore the potential implications for long-term wealth planning.
