Vistage Worldwide, Inc. recently conducted a survey of nearly 750 small business owners for the Wall Street Journal, and although the results of the survey may not be overly surprising, the sentiments of those surveyed may signal the difficulty of implementing estate tax repeal any time soon.

Of those surveyed, nearly 75% of the small business owners said lowering the corporate income tax rate to 15% outweighed the repeal of the estate tax in terms of policy priorities, while just 3% of business owners said repealing the estate tax was the most important priority facing their businesses.

Although sweeping tax reform is still possible, it is becoming more and more evident that the Republicans will be forced to expend a great deal of political capital in order to see any tax reform come to fruition. If those members of Congress are listening to their constituents, that may mean estate tax repeal is taken off the table in order to get other reforms passed.

As always, we will keep a close eye on the Tax Reform progress in Washington (if any progress is made), and if you have any questions regarding the current tax laws, estate planning laws, or your estate plan, please do not hesitate to contact us: (772) 234-5500, bhorner@rlloydlaw.com.