This Alert summarizes the changes recently made to federal estate, generation-skipping and gift tax laws under the 2010 Tax Relief Act. A chart summarizing the effects of the new law for 2010 through 2013 is included below.

Under the provisions of a prior Tax Act adopted in 2001, the estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes were substantially changed during the period from 2001 through 2010, including increases in the estate tax exemption and reductions in the estate and gift tax rates. The changes made by the 2001 Act culminated in a one-year repeal of the federal estate tax for decedents dying in 2010 but with the requirement that the tax basis of assets of a decedent dying in 2010 be carried over to the beneficiaries of the estate, subject to some adjustments. The 2001 Act did not repeal the gift tax; thus, it continued in 2010.