Republican lawmakers' final tax bill directly tracks the Senate bill with regard to the estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes. The final bill contains the following changes:
- The bill increases the federal estate and gift tax unified credit basic exclusion amount from US$5 million (with inflation adjustments) to US$10 million (with inflation adjustments), which means that the basic exclusion amount for 2018 will be US$11.2 million per person or US$22.4 million per married couple. The GST exemption amount, which is equal to the basic exclusion amount, also increases in the same manner.
- The increases are effective for decedents dying after December 31, 2017 and gifts and generation-skipping transfers made after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026.
- Note that there is no longer a repeal of the estate and GST taxes or a reduction of the gift tax rate, both of which were included in the House bill.
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