Senate Republicans failed to garner enough votes last week to pass a bill intended to repeal the federal estate tax.

In a 57 to 41 vote, the GOP fell three votes short of ending debate on the bill, which effectively kills the current version. The estate tax affects the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Currently, the government imposes a tax of nearly 50 percent on estates worth more than $2 million for an individual or $4 million for a couple.

Experts say that another vote on repeal may be introduced after the November elections. But if the Republicans lose seats in the Senate as expected, chances for passage will be extremely unlikely. The Senate may come to a compromise, however, on increasing the amount of tax exemption and decreasing the tax rate.

Talk on Capitol Hill currently revolves around lowering the estate tax rate from 46 percent to 15 percent, and increasing the individual exemption from $2 million to $5 million. Under current law, the estate tax is set to gradually disappear by 2010, then resume in 2011. The bill rejected last week would have repealed it permanently.

—Tim Chan