Lifting estate tax frees the rich and puts burden on rest of us

Last week, writers Lisa Mascaro and Jim Puzzanghera, of the Los Angeles Times’s Washington Bureau, wrote about resolving versions of the proposed tax law but never mentioned a major point that most readers know little about.

The new tax proposal certainly favors the rich in many areas, but the biggest giveaway of all is the change for the inheritance of large estates to future generations. The new code would double the amount of exclusion from $5.5 million to $11million for single, and from $11 million to $22 million for couples.

To add to this wrongly placed proposal, in six years the tax on inherited wealth (which is now 40%) would be reduced to 0%, thus eliminating all estate taxes forever. If passed, the super-rich — including our president — would save about $1 billion on a $3 billion estate.

I cannot understand why this item would be part of the new tax code as it favors only the very few wealthiest people, but triggers a great amount of lost revenue to the rest of us. Could it be that it is just a reward for rich donors? It is inconceivable to me that since the government needs income to pay for the various new tax proposals, it does not consider collecting it from the people lucky enough to be born into very rich families. The estate tax as it now stands is the least damaging tax and reduces the burden on most of us.

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