Steinbrenner's final win -- over estate taxes

In 2001, Congress announced with great fanfare that the federal estate tax had been repealed. Of course, they failed to focus on the fact that the so-called "repeal" would only last for one year: 2010. At the time, most tax professionals laughed at the idea of a one-year repeal, believing that it could never happen. It did.

The controversial tax has remained on the back burner for much of 2010. Two high-profile deaths are pulling it back into the spotlight. In March, Texas billionaire Dan Duncan passed away with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth $9 billion, the 74th wealthiest person in the world. Had he survived for just nine more months, his estate would have been subject to about $4.95 billion in federal estate tax.