In a nutshell...Tax collectors are never popular. Yet if the IRS lacks sufficient funds to do its job properly, that means fewer dollars all around for all federal programs, including national defense, Social Security and Medicare — and for reducing the deficit. Perhaps, as Ms. Olson suggests, Congress should change the way it approaches the IRS's budget and fund the IRS at whatever level Congress believes will "maximize tax compliance, particularly voluntary compliance, with due regard for protecting taxpayer rights and minimizing taxpayer burden." Changes afoot in New York? On January 21. 2014, New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) introduced his comprehensive Executive Budget for New York's 2014-2015 fiscal year. The budget has a number of tax reform proposals, including "modernizing" New York's estate tax law and closing what it refers to as the resident trust "loophole." Here are a few highlights of this draft legislation: • Estate Tax. For decedents dying on or after April 1, 2014, New York would begin lowering its top estate tax rate of 16% (this currently applies to taxable estates just over $10 million), and increasing its S1 million estate tax exclusion amount; by April 1, 2017, the top estate tax rate would have dropped to 10%, and the exclusion amount would have reached $5.25 million. As of January 1, 2019, that exclusion amount would be indexed for inflation using the "cost of living adjustment." defined as the percentage by which the consumer price index (CPI) for 2018 exceeds the CPI for 2012; as of January 1, 2020, the cost of living adjustment would be the percentage by which the CPI for 2019 exceeds the 2018 CPI; in 2021, the adjustment would be the percentage by which the 2020 CPI exceeds the 2018 CPI, and so forth, in subsequent years. In addition, as of April 1. 2014, resident New York decedents would have to include "adjusted taxable gifts" (see below) made on or after that date in their New York gross estates if they were New