EDITORIAL: Inequality and the estate tax
What the president doesn't say is that a weakening of the estate tax, especially the past 15 years, has reduced dramatically its reach. Today, a mere 0.2 percent of estates face the tax. That compares with 2.2 percent in 2001.
As FactCheck.org has noted, 2.5 million people died in 2015, yet just 4,918 people paid the estate tax. It also points to an estimate from the Tax Policy Center that just 50 farms and closely held businesses will pay the estate tax this year. So the number isn't in the "millions," or even the hundreds.
The current exemption is
For their part,
One idea behind the estate tax is that great fortunes reflect the circumstances in which they were achieved, many contributing, including the community as a whole. So a share goes back. No one is taxed at death. The heirs are taxed, and as analysts explain, the estate tax often serves as the only levy on many "unrealized" capital gains.
Another proposal, which they cite and advanced by
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