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Oklahoma
State Senate State Senator Debbe Leftwich, chair of the Senate Business and Labor Committee is sponsoring a bill aimed at amending the state’s lineal estate tax law to include collateral heirs. Senate Bill 1391 would modify the current law and allow collateral heirs to have the same exemptions that lineal heirs have. Under current law, lineal heirs have an exemption of up to $1 million on estate taxes, but there is no exemption for collateral heirs. “What this bill does is modify the exemption to include collateral heirs,” Leftwich said. “This will allow relatives such as aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews to the same tax exemption as lineal heirs do.” Governor Brad Henry mentioned his support for extending the estate tax exemption to collateral heirs in his State of the State speech saying that by doing this it will help keep family farms and small businesses as vital part of Oklahoma’s economy. Leftwich said the bill is needed because there are often times when a person who doesn’t have children wants to leave their estate to an extended relative, but that person wouldn’t be eligible for the tax exemption. “I’m hoping this will equal
out an in-balance in Oklahoma’s tax system,”
Leftwich said. “Collateral heirs have unfairly
been excluded from this tax exemption and I want to
try and correct this.”
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