Close the Billionaire Tax Loophole [View all]

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https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/15




If our leaders want to balance the budget, here’s a suggestion: Congress can scrap a new “Paris Hilton” giveaway that’s draining billions of federal tax dollars.

This giveaway takes the form of a complex tax loophole designed to circumvent the federal estate tax, one of the few ways a democratic society can reduce extreme wealth inequality.

The estate tax is a levy on inheritances that multi-millionaires and billionaires leave behind when they pass away. It affects only the wealthiest two out of every thousand U.S. taxpayers — individuals with at least $5.34 million to their name, or $10.68 million for a couple.

Estate-tax levels have bounced around for decades. In 2013, the government officially pegged it at 40 percent, one of the lowest levels since 1930. The effective (real-life) rate paid by these deep-pocketed estates amounted to less than half of that.