¹See Johnson and Mikow, IRS Statistics of Income Bulletin (Spring 2002), p. 167.

²Id. at p. 168.

³The Federal gift tax was modified, but not eliminated; see EGTRRA Section 511(d). For background on the EGTRRA changes, see Sawyers and Whitlock, Estates, Trusts & Gifts: Post-EGTRRA Planning and Analysis, 32 The Tax Adviser 822 (December 2001).

⁴See Hoffman, Smith and Willis, Wests Federal Taxation: Individual Income Taxes (South-Western/Thompson, 2002), p. 111.

⁵An inheritance or succession tax is defined as: A tax on the right to receive property from a decedent at death and is usually graduated by the size of the share of the particular beneficiary and his/her relationship to the decedent.; see Hower, Wills, Trusts and Estate Administration (West, 1979) p. 924.

⁶See Hoffman, et al., note 4 supra, at p. 17-3.

⁷See Duncan, State Responses to Estate Tax Changes Enacted as Part of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), Tax Notes, Doc. No. 2002-26344 (11/26/02).

⁸See id.

⁹The Maryland Court of Appeals described the Maryland pick-up tax as follows: The structure of the Maryland estate tax is referred to as a pick-up tax. This means that, if the federal credit for state death taxes allowable by the Internal Revenue Code exceeds the Maryland inheritance tax, an estate must pay Maryland estate tax to pick up the difference between the credit and the state inheritance tax. Stated more succinctly, the inheritance tax is deducted from the federal estate tax credit to determine the amount of Maryland estate tax. By providing for full use of the federal credit for state death taxes, the Maryland estate tax statute shifts taxes that would otherwise be paid to the federal government to the state treasury. Register of Wills for Baltimore Cty. v. Jeffrey A. Arrowsmith, 365 Md. 237 (2001), fn. 6, citing Comptroller of the Currency v. Mary Jameson, 332 Md. 723 (1993).

¹⁰Pa. Stat. Ann. 9117.

¹¹Pa. Stat. Ann. 9116.

¹²See Sec. 2053(d), as amended, for transfers after 2004.

¹³If property is located in several states, the state death tax is often prorated based on the percentage of property located in each state.

¹⁴See Sec. 2502(a), as amended, for transfers after 2009.

¹⁵EGTRRA Section 901 provides that the EGTRRA provisions do not apply to the estate and gift tax area for transfers after 2010. Obviously, this sunset provision adds uncertainty to the planning process.