The Estate Tax Will Be Dead by 2024 If GOP Tax Plan Passes
The new House Republican tax reform plan released on Thursday calls for changes to the estate tax, otherwise known as the “death tax,” including its elimination after a period of six years.
Currently Opens a New Window. , single taxpayers can leave up to $5.49 million tax-free to their heirs, while married couples can leave up to nearly $11 million. Any amount above those figures means beneficiaries would be faced with a 40% federal estate tax.
The estate tax exemption, under the new plan called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, will double and eventually be repealed after 2023. The provision will maintain the beneficiary’s “stepped-up basis,” meaning if an asset is inherited and then sold for more money than its original cost, the person would not pay a capital gains tax.
“Economists tend to see the estate tax as one of the most economically harmful taxes per dollar of revenue raised,” Jared Walczak, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, told FOX Business. “By raising the estate tax threshold and ultimately repealing the estate tax outright, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would remove an impediment to economic growth.”
Some argue that the tax in its current form hurts farms and family-owned business in America and that it is essentially a form of double taxation, since the assets being passed down have already been taxed as income. (Read more from “The Estate Tax Will Be Dead by 2024 If GOP Tax Plan Passes” HERE)
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