---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE ESTATE TAX."
description: "This bill will sunset the Delaware Estate Tax on December 31, 2017."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 16"
citation: "Delaware HB 16 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["F. Gary Simpson", "Gregory F. Lavelle", "Michael Ramone", "Ruth Briggs King"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 8
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2016-12-15"
last_action: "2017-07-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/398b8664-92db-45f5-b070-e063db3d3850"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25335"
source_hash: "9b6b51f2794265578bdb0299ca2ef52adcb032a33142d7babcdabf4f96c7c238"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 16 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE ESTATE TAX.

This bill will sunset the Delaware Estate Tax on December 31, 2017.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=25335&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB16)

## Votes

- SM — **13–7** (pass) · upper
- SM — **26–14** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- F. Gary Simpson — primary (person)
- Gregory F. Lavelle — primary (person)
- Michael Ramone — primary (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — primary (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Daniel B. Short — cosponsor (person)
- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- Harvey R. Kenton — cosponsor (person)
- Jeff N. Spiegelman — cosponsor (person)
- Lyndon D. Yearick — cosponsor (person)
- Richard G. Collins — cosponsor (person)
- Ronald E. Gray — cosponsor (person)
- Timothy D. Dukes — cosponsor (person)
- William R. Outten — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-12-15** Introduced and Assigned to Revenue & Finance Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-05-03** Reported Out of Committee (Revenue & Finance) in House with 8 On Its Merits, 2 Unfavorable `committee-passage, committee-passage-unfavorable`
- **2017-05-18** Amendment HA 1 to HB 16 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2017-05-18** Amendment HA 1 to HB 16 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2017-05-18** Passed By House. Votes: 26 YES 14 NO 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-05-22** Assigned to Finance Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-06-15** Passed By Senate. Votes: 13 YES 7 NO 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-07-02** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/398b8664-92db-45f5-b070-e063db3d3850`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).