As you may have heard, the U.S. Federal estate tax, long set to expire for the duration of 2010, apparently has sighed its last (temporary) gasp as the Senate adjourns for the rest of the year. We can thank the heated debate over national health care reform for this apparent oversight.

Bush Administration legislation, passed nine years ago, called for gradual raising of the estate ceiling while also lowering taxes 10% over ten years. Although the strange proviso that estate tax be eliminated completely for the year 2010, only to rise from the dead on Jan. 1, 2011 is confusing to many. Tax laws, like many other laws, appear completely arbitrary when viewed from the "end-user" perspective.

Estate planners have long joked that if you really love your heirs, 2010 would be the year to kick the bucket.

The House of Representatives has already said "no" to this proviso. In fact, they proposed codifying the estate tax into permanent IRS law as of New Years' Day 2010. However, since both houses of Congress are required to agree on such changes, and the Senate has already packed up and left, we will all have to wait until they all reconvene in January to see what happens.

Come January, experts say it's likely that the Senate will agree to re-instate the Federal estate tax - retroactive as of January 1, 2010. So there never will be a "good" tax time to die, except in the government's eyes.