The AICPA wants to simplify the planning associated with the estate and gift tax, including the re-unification of the estate and gift tax exemption amounts, testified Sawyers.

"In order to provide certainty to taxpayers, the AICPA encourages Congress to make permanent changes to the estate tax prior to its scheduled repeal in 2010," he said.

"Taxpayers and practitioners face planning difficulties as a result of decoupling the estate and gift tax exemption amounts in 2004," said Sawyers. "Under the law prior to the passage of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, the estate and gift tax exemption was unified and could be used to offset both lifetime gifts and bequests at death. This policy was well understood by taxpayers and simplified estate and gift tax planning by reducing the number of tax and non-tax variables that must be considered in deciding whether to transfer assets during life or at death."

However, Sawyers said that under current law, while the estate tax exemption and generation skipping transfer tax exemption stand at $2 million in 2008 and increase to $3.5 million in 2009, the gift tax exemption remains at $1 million.

"As a result of the decoupling, taxpayers including small business owners may be discouraged from making orderly lifetime gifts of property and to engage in business succession planning," Sawyers noted.

Sawyers said another issue is the uncertainty surrounding the future of the estate tax, which "puts CPAs and other tax practitioners in an awkward position as properly advising a client as to the benefits of making lifetime gifts requires an assumption as to whether the estate tax will indeed be repealed," said Sawyers. "The uncertainty concerning the future of the estate tax makes the decision much more difficult for taxpayers and their advisors."