The Estate Tax: By the Numbers

The Tax Policy Center has recently posted tables displaying the impact of the estate tax. The analysis shows just how few people would benefit from a repeal of the estate tax:

The Tax Policy Center has recently posted tables displaying the impact of the estate tax. The analysis shows just how few people would benefit from a repeal of the estate tax:

Last Thursday, President Bush said that "the death tax is bad for rural America.” However, the numbers show that the president is using a very, very, very small number of people to sell a tax break that would benefit only a very, very small number of very wealthly individuals; and the rest of us will have to pick up the tab - the president is projecting a deficit of more than $500 billion for this year alone.

The real issues are not about rural America, and not about family farms or businesses; but rather about who would really benefit -- the wealthiest Americans, some of whom continue to pressure the administration with armies of lobbyists using “family business” as a misleading argument. (Although a large number of the wealthiest Americans do support the estate tax, see Responsible Wealth.)

Meanwhile in the House of Representatives, 20 of the 29 wealthiest members rich enough to qualify for the estate tax voted last year to cut the tax at the expense of the rest of us (see compilation by TechPolitics.)


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