That’s not some rabble-rousing radical on a soap box in Berkeley saying that. That’s the investment banker who’s in second place on Forbes’ billionaire list (after Bill Gates).
For all that the GOP has long tried to brand it as a “death tax” that affects everyday people, small business owners and farmers and families just trying to help their next generation of struggling entrepreneurs get through college, the impact of the estate tax is minuscule: 5,000 estates out of the 2.4 million people who will die this year. An individual can leave an estate this year of nearly $5.5 million before the tax starts to kick in on the rest; a married couple can leave nearly $11 million. Only after that amount is passed on does the 40% tax start to kick in on estate value above that.
Or, put another way, the only people who save money if the estate tax is repealed are people who are leaving, as individuals, more than $5.5 million to their heirs. That’s not exactly the “little guy” that Trump and the GOP say they’re trying to help. That’s — well, folk like Trump, who could then pass on over a billion dollars more to his heirs when he goes to his eternal reward.
Warren Buffett says eliminating the estate tax is a ‘terrible mistake’
Buffett says the estate tax impacts only a small percentage of Americans, so getting rid of it would not have widespread effects.
Well it does fit into the GOP goal of turning us into the CSA, landed gentry and mint juleps for the .01%!