A recapture tax allows a state or provincial tax agency to impose a tax on a deceased taxpayer’s estate, diverting funds from national or federal governments. It is common in the US, where some states do not impose estate, death, or inheritance taxes. The process is straightforward, but if no estate taxes are owed to the federal tax agency, the state will receive nothing.
A recapture tax is a type of tax liability that will sometimes allow a state or provincial tax agency to impose a tax on the estate of a recently deceased taxpayer, effectively diverting funds that would have been taxed by a national or federal government. A tax of this type is most common when the state jurisdiction does not impose any type of death or inheritance tax that would result in receiving a certain amount of the deceased’s estate. Essentially, this means that the state tax agency is collecting a portion of the tax that would go to the national tax agency if there were some sort of death or inheritance tax imposed locally.
The use of a withdrawal tax is common in the United States. Since some states do not impose estate, death, or inheritance taxes, this means that tax assessments focus squarely on the tax laws and regulations applied by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In some cases, states do not meet the minimum tax requirement at that level, and may or may not be subject to a recapture tax as a result. When the state has provisions for estate or death taxes, there is generally no type of recovery tax assessed.
One of the benefits of using a tax-withdrawal approach is that the process typically requires the withdrawal of a percentage of the tax that is assessed by the IRS. This means there is no need for the sometimes complicated formulas used to determine the amount of estate or death taxes owed. From this perspective, the process is very simple and straightforward, making it easy for the state to identify the amount owed and for the executor of the estate to make sure that amount is paid.
One potential drawback to the recapture tax approach is that if the IRS determines that no estate taxes are owed to the federal tax agency, this means that the state will also receive nothing in the way of tax payments on that estate. For this reason, a number of jurisdictions within the United States choose to create and make use of tax laws that include the assessment of estate or death taxes. In other parts of the world, the idea of a recapture tax is not found in the local or national tax codes of many nations.
Smart Asset.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
