So here it was New Years Eve and my wife and I were gathered with just a few friends ( I hate those big crowds) and beginning to keep a close eye on the television with the focus on the clock. Looks to be about twenty minutes until the stroke of midnight ushering in the year 2010. Just how fast this year had gone seemed to be the sentiment of everyone. It would soon be time to hear the words of Auld Lang Syne being sung.
Just to digress for a minute, do you know the origin of that song? The indications are that it was written as a Scottish poem by Robert Burns back in 1788 and then set to the tune of a traditional folk song of the time. The translations abound, but seem to suggest a reference to “times gone by.” Hence, I guess, the suggestion to “drink a cup of kindness yet for times gone by.” I find it kind of funny to think of that bottle, or glass of champagne, as kindness, as it hasn’t always been so kind to me when getting up the next morning and lifting my head off the pillow! I must say that age has taught me a lesson about how much of that kindness to engage in.
So back to the clock slipping closer to midnight and my thoughts are quickly shifting from days gone by to the New Year. I suddenly said to my friend Tony, a lawyer, so just think, in a matter of minutes there will be no estate tax, as Congress has not passed any amendments to the existing law which has the tax expiring in 2010. They certainly had given every indication of doing so but with all energies going to the health bill it left no time before recess to be addressed. So certainly not a laughing matter, but I continued my comments suggesting that somewhere there was a person, most likely in a hospital setting, being given every accommodation of life support for at least a few more minutes to ensure their passing would be in 2010, free of estate tax!
Well, maybe free. We know that Congress will be back this week in session and even as I write this blog if they have returned they are probably taking care of that amendment. But is it constitutional to make it retroactive to January 1 as the clock hit that witching hour? It will be interesting to see if there are any issues such as this that might make their case all the way to the Supreme Court.
At that point I said, enough about business and politics, pass me a glass of that kindness and let me offer all of you, as I did our friends, a toast to the New Year for a happy, healthy, and prosperous one.
