Sanders seeks estate tax up to 77% for billionaires

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders is proposing to expand the estate tax on wealthy Americans, including a rate of as much as 77 percent on the value of estates above $1 billion.

Sanders of Vermont, who’s considering a second run for president, said in a statement that his plan would apply to the wealthiest 0.2 percent of Americans. Itwould set a 45 percent tax on the value of estates between $3.5 million and $10 million, increasing gradually to 77 percent for amounts more than $1 billion. The current estate tax kicks in when an estate is worth about $11 million.

The legislation would raise up to $2.2 trillion in taxes from the families of all 588 billionaires in the U. S. with a combined networth of more than $3 trillion, according to a summary of the plan.

Sanders’ plan comes as potential Democratic challengers to President Donald Trump eye progressive tax ideas intended to reduce income inequality. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has proposed an annual 2 percent tax on households worth more than $50million. Sanders, who ran in the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton in 2016, hasn’t yet said whether he’ll run in 2020.

The estate tax exemption was $3.5mil- lion as recently as 2009. The 2017 GOP tax overhaul increased the exemption to $11 million through 2025, and some Senate Republicans are renewing an effort to repeal the tax entirely.

While Sanders and Warren represent one approach to reducing income inequality— breaking up concentrations of wealth among top earners — other Democratic candidates are directing their efforts toward the lowest income brackets.

Polls show that voters are becoming more receptive to the idea of increasing taxes on the wealthy. Freshman Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez of NewYork floated a 70 percent top tax rate on incomes of $10 million or more, an idea that 59 percent of people supported in a Hill-HarrisX poll conducted Jan. 1213.

The Sanders plan would nearly double the estate tax liabilities that some of the wealthiest Americans would owe under current law, according to calculations released by the senator along with details of the proposal. Amazon. com founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, would owe $101 billion based on his current net worth, up from$53 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s estate tax liability would jump to $41 billion from$22 billion.

The Sanders legislation would also end tax breaks for so- called dynasty trusts.