The following article by Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Rachel West and Melissa Boteach was posted on the Center for American Progress website November 15, 2017:
House Republicans’ latest tax plan proposes reducing the number of estates that would pay the estate tax over the next six years and eliminating the tax entirely by 2024, giving away billions of dollars to the children of millionaires and billionaires—including President Donald Trump’s own children. President Trump has specifically highlighted the estate tax as a giveaway to the rich, reportedly saying, “The deal is so bad for rich people, I had to throw in the estate tax just to give them something.”
While President Trump’s claim that the tax plan is bad for rich people is utterly false—his tax plan is decidedly good for the wealthiest Americans—it is true that repealing the estate tax exclusively benefits them. What’s more, this handout to the ultrawealthy would not only increase inequality, it would also undermine America’s charities and faith organizations. New analysis by the Center for American Progress estimates that eliminating the estate tax would reduce the amount people give to charity in their wills by $7.8 billion in 2024. Continue reading “Repealing the Estate Tax Would Plunge Charitable Giving”