It appears that we may be one step closer to repeal of the Ohio Estate tax. On May 5, the Ohio House of Representative approved H.B. 153. Within this bill, was the inclusion of language eliminating Ohio’s estate tax, effective January 1, 2013.

The repeal of the Ohio estate tax is not a new initiative. Ohioans pay some of the highest state Estate tax. This is due to mainly to, the Ohio estate exemption, which is currently set at $338,333, an amount that a majority of middle-class Ohioans easily exceed.

With Ohioans paying more state estate taxes that other states’ residents, the trend has been for Ohioans to relocate to a number of other states that have less of an estate tax bite. That in turn, hurts the Ohio economy.

A large hurdle in the repeal of the Ohio estate tax, has been that negative impact on local governments. Local governments receive 80% of all Ohio estate tax revenues. For some localities, this is a significant portion of the general fund revenue. With local governments struggling over state funding, it will be difficult for some legislatures to swallow cutting estate tax revenues. Local governments would suffer lost services to residents or a need to increase local taxes to make up the shortfall in estate tax revenue.

Stay tuned as we track the development of this important issue for Ohioans!