Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015

Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes for estates of decedents dying or for transfers made on or after the enactment date of this Act. In the case of assets placed in a qualified domestic trust by a decedent who dies prior to the enactment of this Act, the current estate tax will not apply to: (1) distributions from such trust before the death of a surviving spouse made more than 10 years after the enactment date of this Act, and (2) assets remaining in such trust upon the death of the surviving spouse.

(Sec. 3) This section revises gift tax rates to lower the top rate to 35% and deems a transfer in trust to be a taxable gift unless the trust is treated as wholly-owned by the donor or the donor's spouse.

The lifetime exemption for gifts is set at $5 million with a cost-of-living adjustment for calendar years beginning after 2011. The adjusted exemption amount in 2015 is $5.43 million.

(Sec. 4) The budgetary effects of this Act are exempted from entry on either PAYGO scorecard maintained under the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov