WASHINGTON, DC — As reported recently, the U.S. Senate stopped short of joining the House of Representatives in permanently repealing the federal estate tax. Following the news, Dirk Van Dongen, president of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), expressed “bitter disappointment in the Senate’s failure to…permanently repeal the death tax.”

Current federal estate tax law, enacted one year ago as part of President Bush’s tax relief bill, completes a phaseout of the death tax in the year 2010, but reinstates it in 2011. President Bush supports permanent repeal of the estate tax, and on June 6 the House passed legislation to make the repeal permanent.