CONGRESS WEIGHS ESTATE TAX REPEAL
Update: The House has passed this measure, which now advances to the Senate.
By Miriam Raftery
April 16, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - This week, when most of us paid our taxes due on April 15th, the Republican majority in Congress is trying to push through H.R. 1105, a bill that would repeal the estate tax for millionaires and billionaires.
The estate tax law has already been reformed so that only households with a net work of $5.4 million – the top 0.2 percent, even pay the federal estate tax. If HR 1105 passes, no one will pay it at all.
Backers claim eliminating the estate tax would spur investment in the economy, though there is no guarantee that wealthy heirs would use their inherited fortunes to start companies or hire workers.
At a time of widening income inequality between the top income earners and the vast majority of Americans, this tax break would cost our nation $270 billion in revenues over the next 10 years.
The effort to repeal the estate tax comes at the same time that the GOP Congress is seeking to cut Social Security, Medicare, and other programs that benefit poor and elderly Americans.