Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton is proposing to increase federal estate taxes from 40% to 45%. Right now, the rate starts at 40% for people who die with an estate, including all assets such as insurance, in excess of $5.45 million. Clinton has repeatedly stated she wants to reduce this exemption to a lower figure so more people have to pay tax and she now is revealing that she wants to also increase the estate tax rate.
Many people forget that prior to President Reagan’s estate tax reform in the 1980s, anyone within an of $60,000 or more had to file a federal estate tax return and was subject to federal estate tax. This affected most people. As a result of the estate tax reform, very few people need to file federal estate tax returns. In states where the cost of housing is very high, lowering the exemption rate to $1 million would require many people to file estate tax returns with the IRS.
Once again, instead of hearing about tax simplification and tax reduction, candidate Clinton wants to increase the complexity of the Internal Revenue Code and increased taxes. Not a good idea!
One more comment, let us look at the debates, even though they exclude Libertarian Party candidate Brown, and Green Party candidate Stein, to see if either Clinton or Trump will talk about true tax reform, simplification and reduction.
see: http://www.TaxEsq.com
