Bury The Jersey Death Tax!

Jersey has one of the highest tax rates in the nation for people who are alive – but it also one of the worst states in the country for taxpayers who die.

Now, a Garden state lawmaker has introduced a measure to change things.

Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Ron Dancer would repeal the transfer inheritance tax and amend the estate tax to increase the filing threshold and exclusion amounts in accordance with the provisions of federal tax law. The law would apply to estates whose owners died after Dec. 31, 2011.

 “In New Jersey” says Dancer, “one of the nation’s worst tax burdens is applied to the living, and the dead, it’s time to bury the death tax.”

The transfer inheritance tax is one of Jersey’s oldest taxes, dating to 1892. The 16 percent tax is applied when property is transferred outside the immediate family. The other death tax, known as the estate tax, is applied on property valued at more than 675 thousand dollars.

The proposed legislation would provide tax relief by revising that threshold to the federal level, which is currently 5-point-1 million dollars.

New Jersey, one of 22 states with either kind of death tax, and just one of two states with both, was recently named by Forbes as a place “Where Not to Die In 2012.”

“People should not have to meet with their accountants” says Dancer, “on the same day they meet with a funeral director.”