Brooker v. Madigan

902 N.E.2d 1246, 388 Ill. App. 3d 410
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 17, 2009
Docket1-07-1876
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 902 N.E.2d 1246 (Brooker v. Madigan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brooker v. Madigan, 902 N.E.2d 1246, 388 Ill. App. 3d 410 (Ill. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

JUSTICE GARCIA

delivered the opinion of the court:

This appeal questions whether the estate of Nancy Neumann Brooker, valued at more than $68 million, is liable to the State of Illinois for $3,530,949.32 in estate “death” taxes. The answer hinges on the interpretation of the 2003 amendment to the Illinois Estate and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Act that defines “State tax credit” at the time of Ms. Brooker’s death as “an amount equal to the full credit calculable under Section 2011 *** of the Internal Revenue Code as the credit would have been computed and allowed under the Internal Revenue Code as in effect on December 31, 2001.” (Emphasis added.) 35 ILCS 405/2(a) (West 2004). The circuit court accepted the estate’s position that because it did not claim a credit on its federal tax return, no estate tax is due under the Illinois Estate and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Act.

We conclude that whether Illinois estate taxes are due does not turn on whether the estate chooses to claim a “credit for State death taxes” under section 2011 on its federal tax filing. Rather, Illinois estate taxes are due on every taxable transfer within the State of Illinois in the amount of “the credit [that] would have been computed and allowed” as provided by the 2003 amendment, whether or not a credit is claimed on the estate’s federal tax filing. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.

BACKGROUND

As the backdrop to our analysis, we begin with the interplay between the Illinois and federal estate taxation systems. We then examine the Federal Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (26 U.S.C. §1 et seq. (2006)), followed by Illinois’s response in the 2003 amendment to the Illinois Estate and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Act. We then consider the 2003 amendment in light of the facts of this case. Finally, we set out the circuit court proceedings in this case.

I. Illinois’s Pick Up Tax: 1983-2003

From 1983 through 2003, Illinois imposed a “pick-up” estate tax “coupled” with federal law. D. Berek, Illinois’ New Estate-Tax Law, 91 Ill. B.J. 465, 465 (2003). Section 2011 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) (26 U.S.C. §2011 (2000)) gave estate taxpayers a credit of up to 16% of the federal estate tax liability for taxes they paid to the state. McGinley v. Madigan, 366 Ill. App. 3d 974, 977, 851 N.E.2d 709 (2006); Berek, 91 Ill. B.J. at 465. This coupling of state and federal estate taxes provided a revenue stream for the state’s coffers without imposing an additional tax burden on the affected estate. In effect, the state tax credit under section 2011 of the IRC diverted tax revenue from the federal to the state coffers. Illinois simply “picked up” the maximum amount of credit permitted under federal law for estate taxes paid to the state. K. Bohl, The Resurrection of the Death Tax: Decoupling and the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, 13 Elder L.J. 417, 432 (2005).

This taxation scheme was codified in the Illinois Estate and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Act (Estate Tax Act). Section 3(a) provided an estate tax to be imposed “on every taxable transfer involving transferred property having a tax situs within the State of Illinois.” 35 ILCS 405/3(a) (West 2002). The amount of the tax was “the maximum state tax credit allowable [under Section 2011 or Section 2604 of the [IRC]] with respect to the taxable transfer.” 35 ILCS 405/2, 3(b) (West 2002).

II. The 2001 Federal Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act

In 2001, Congress enacted the Federal Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) (26 U.S.C. §1 et seq. (2006)), effective January 1, 2002. EGTRRA gradually increased the federal estate tax base exemption amount from $700,000 in 2001 to $3.5 million in 2009, gradually repealed the federal estate tax, with a full repeal to occur in 2010, and gradually phased out the credit under section 2011 for state death taxes. McGinley, 366 Ill. App. 3d at 977; Berek, 91 Ill. B.J. at 465. The section 2011 credit was reduced by 25% in 2002, 50% in 2003, and 75% in 2004. 26 U.S.C. §2011 (b)(2)(B) (2006). Beginning in 2005, the section 2011 credit for state estate taxes was fully repealed. 26 U.S.C. §2011(f) (2006). EGTRRA essentially ended the diversion of estate tax revenue from the federal government to the states by increasing the base exemption for estates and reducing the federal credit for state estate taxes. S. Bart, This is Me Leaving You: Illinois Departs from the Federal Estate Tax Scheme, 92 Ill. B.J. 20, 21 (2004). According to one commentator, with EGTRRA “the federal government is effectively redirecting state revenue into the federal piggy bank under the auspices of a federal tax cut.” Bohl, 13 Elder L.J. at 421. In other words, the federal government was turning the table on the states. The states could no longer divert federal estate taxes by imposing estate taxes under state law in the amount of the section 2011 credit, while leaving the gross (federal and state) tax burden on the estates the same.

III. Illinois’s Amended Estate Tax Act

As a result of EGTRRA, Illinois, with a pick-up estate tax scheme based on the maximum amount of credit that an estate may claim on its federal tax return for state estate taxes, faced a loss of revenue. As the section 2011 credit was reduced by 25% each year beginning in 2002, until it disappeared in 2005, Illinois would see a corresponding reduction in the state estate taxes paid. To address this reduction in Illinois’s tax revenue stream, our legislature amended the Estate Tax Act by enacting Public Act 93 — 30 (Pub. Act 93 — 30, eff. June 20, 2003).1 McGinley, 366 Ill. App. 3d at 987. This legislation has been described as “likely the most complex decoupling law enacted among the states” in response to EGTRRA. Bohl, 13 Elder L.J. at 432.

Section 3(a) of the Estate Tax Act continued to impose an estate tax “on every taxable transfer involving transferred property having a tax situs within the State of Illinois.” 35 ILCS 405/3(a) (West 2004). Public Act 93 — 30 amended the Act to define the amount of the estate tax due as “the state tax credit, as defined in Section 2 of this Act, with respect to the taxable transfer.” 35 ILCS 405/3(b) (West 2004). Amended section 2(a) defined “State tax credit,” for persons like Ms. Brooker dying between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2005, as:

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Brooker v. Madigan
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Bluebook (online)
902 N.E.2d 1246, 388 Ill. App. 3d 410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brooker-v-madigan-illappct-2009.