Via The Washington Policy Center:
Beating a Friday morning deadline to keep the Department of Revenue from issuing court ordered refunds, the Legislature yesterday approved HB 2075 - a retroactive change to the state's death tax. The new law undoes a unanimous State Supreme Court ruling which required death tax refunds to certain estates.Republican Washington Representative Matt Shea issues a statement explaining what this new Democratic law does:
The House approved HB 2075 early Thursday with the Senate voting late last night and the Governor immediately signing the bill into law utilizing an emergency clause.
Though responding prospectively to the Court ruling was never in doubt, it is a bit shocking to see the Legislature make retroactive changes to the state's tax law.
Imagine if you will that the government decides to add a new tax on you today. Let’s say it’s a “wake-up” tax. Every day since 1983 when you wake up after a night’s sleep, you owe this tax. It didn’t exist back then, but the government says you owe it now and you must pay it. How unfair is that?
Retroactively collecting a tax that didn’t exist 30 years ago is not only unfair, it’s unconstitutional.
Fortunately, there is no such thing as a retroactive wake-up tax. However, the state House of Representatives approved a bill today that would impose a retroactive death tax going back to the 1980s. House Bill 2075 would allow the state to retroactively collect the death tax from the estates of married couples who used a certain type of trust (known as a “qualified terminable interest property” or QTIP trust) to transfer assets from one spouse to the surviving spouse without paying the state estate tax. This measure would allow the state to reach back some 30 years to collect on a tax that didn’t exist in the 1980s.
Congratulations Washington residents, you got exactly what you voted for..... happy?