A tax break for the Donald Trumps.
A tax break for the Donald Trumps.
It's tax time, which means Republicans are setting up a bunch of BS tax-related votes to show that they rilly rilly like totally hate taxes. Especially the ones on rich people. So naturally,
repealing the estate tax is a top Republican priority. The good news is, Democrats seem happy to have this fight. And why wouldn't they be?
Under current law, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that 5,400 estates will have to deal with the tax over the next several years, out of the well over 2 million deaths that occur annually.
That’s because individuals with estates valued at less than $5.43 million this year, and married couples with estates worth less than $10.86 million, are exempt. The 2013 “fiscal cliff” deal set the current parameters, which also include a 40 percent rate and linking the exemption parameters to inflation.
That's not a whole lot of people facing the estate tax, and the ones who do are pretty damn rich. Republicans like to wail about the poor family farmers and small business owners who will be hit by the tax, but I don't think most of us think $5.43 million is all that small.
What's more:
Only roughly 20 small business and small farm estates nationwide owed any estate tax in 2013, according to [the Tax Policy Center]. TPC’s analysis defined a small-business or small farm estate as one with more than half its value in a farm or business and with the farm or business assets valued at less than $5 million. Furthermore, TPC estimates those roughly 20 estates owed just 4.9 percent of their value in tax, on average. [...]
Furthermore, special estate tax provisions — such as the option to spread payments over a 15-year period and at low interest rates — allow the few taxable estates that would face any liquidity constraints to pay the tax without selling off any farm assets.
But Republicans want to give up $270 billion in revenue over the next decade to protect a few thousand rich people, including around 20 who could be defined as family farmers or small business owners, each year.
Sign and send the petition to your member of Congress: Do not repeal the estate tax.
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