As of July 1, it’s official: Ohio has repealed its state estate tax, as reported through Forbes. Of course, it’s not quite dead yet as the estate tax provision of the new law doesn’t go into effect until Jan 1, 2013. Once it kicks in, though, the O

As of July 1, it’s official: Ohio has repealed its state estate tax, as reported through Forbes.  Of course, it’s not quite dead yet as the estate tax provision of the new law doesn’t go into effect until Jan 1, 2013. Once it kicks in, though, the Ohio estate tax repeal is meant to be permanent.

This will leave New Jersey with the distinction of being the state with the lowest estate exemption of $675,000.

Other states are in the news as well, with both Maine and Oregon tweaking their state estate taxes. The Maine budget makes a prospective change in their exemption, doubling it from $1 million to $2 million as of Jan. 1, 2013 and thereby exempting some 400 estates. Oregon, on the other hand, has introduced new graduated rates from 10% to 16% applied to the estate above $1 million. The tax applies to the entire estate but jumps up to a flat 16% on portions in excess of $1 million, thus going in the opposite direction of Maine and Ohio and introducing a new calculus for Oregon estate planning.

Reference: Forbes – Ashlea Ebeling (Jun 30/ Jul 1, 2011) “Ohio Repeals its Estate Tax; Maine and Oregon Tweak Theirs”