State House Votes to Eliminate Inheritance Tax on Family Businesses

The Pennsylvania state budget may deliver some good news for family-owned businesses.

Eliminating the inheritance tax for small businesses could be part of the 2013-2014 budget negotiations now ongoing in the statehouse, with a unanimous vote from the House of Representatives and a strong supporter leading discussions in the Senate.

The House passed House Bill 48 on Monday afternoon with a 198-0 vote. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Steve Bloom, R-Cumberland, eliminates the inheritance tax on family owned businesses.

The tax applies to real estate and all other business assets paid by siblings, children or other descendants who inherit a business as part of an estate.

“I was really pleased that all the Democrats supported the bill, along with all the Republicans, because it shows that the small businesses that grow the jobs are a priority for the House,” Bloom said, “and it’s obviously a bipartisan issue.”

Earlier this year, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, sponsored similar legislation to eliminate the inheritance tax on small businesses, that passed out of a Senate committee.

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