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This bill would eliminate the estate tax — a tax on the ability of a dead person to transfer their property at their death — and the generation-skipping transfer tax, which taxes gifts from dead people to their grandchildren. These taxes would be abolished as soon as this legislation is enacted.

It would also reduce the top rate on gift taxes from 40 percent to 35 percent on gifts of $500,000 or more. A lifetime gift tax exemption would be calculated by increasing $5,000,000 annually by the amount of inflation since 2010 to adjust for increases in the cost of living.

Transfers involving trusts would be treated as a taxable gift unless the trust is wholly owned by the donor or the donor’s spouse.

Currently, individuals are exempt from the estate tax if their assets are less than $5.43 million, while the limit for married couples is $10.86 million, with the top tax rate on income above those levels being 40 percent.

","official_title":"To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes.","short_title":"Death Tax Repeal Act of 2017","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Death Tax Repeal Act of 2017\n\nThis bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) repeal the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes, and (2) make permanent the maximum 35% gift tax rate and the lifetime gift tax exemption. The bill provides for an inflation adjustment to such exemption amount.","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.","impact":"People who would otherwise be subject the estate tax, the generation-skipping transfer tax, or the gift tax as they are currently structured, and the IRS. ","argument_for":"Why should death or gifts from grandparents to their grandchildren be taxable events? These people already paid taxes on that money when they first earned it, taxing it again at a person’s death is not only insulting, it's double-taxation. ","argument_against":"The people who pay these taxes are the wealthiest in the country — they can afford it. Not to mention, the tax only applies to about 2 of every 1,000 estates. The government does not need to be giving the Paris Hiltons of the world a $269 billion gift. 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Just because you slap an interesting name on a bill doesn't mean it's good policy. ","show_argument_for":false,"show_argument_against":true,"upvote_count":0,"upvotes_for_count":null,"upvotes_against_count":0,"has_upvoted":false,"endorsement_count":0,"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/positions/e042cc55-d19e-402f-b413-aded357d04e9"},"body":"This only helps the very wealthy! Just because you slap an interesting name on a bill doesn't mean it's good policy. ","stance":"nay","created_at":"2017-04-19T19:35:57.892Z","shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/positions/e042cc55-d19e-402f-b413-aded357d04e9.png","note_color":null,"note_text":null,"bill_id":"hr631-115","user_id":"w9Dbvp8Z","endorser_ids":[]}}

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Should the "Death Tax" and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax be Repealed?