In States, the Estate Tax Nears Extinction

For years, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association advocated scrapping the estate tax, arguing it was driving wealthy New Jersey families to other states.

The group got nowhere. Defenders of the tax argued that the cash-strapped state needed every penny it could get, and that it was fair to levy an extra tax on the estates of the rich.

Then late last year estate tax opponents finally succeeded: They packaged the eventual abolition of that tax with a bunch of other tax hikes, including a huge increase in the gasoline tax that brought New Jersey from the second-lowest gas tax in the nation to the eighth-highest. Under legislation Republican Gov. Chris Christie signed in 2016, the estate tax exemption rose from $675,000 to $2 million this year and will be eliminated in 2018.

New Jersey will retain its inheritance tax, which is assessed on individual bequests rather than on overall estates.

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