Even now, Senate Republicans seek another tax break for the wealthy

[Galraedia]

Source: MSNBC

Donald Trump had a weird habit of bragging about having eliminated the estate tax, to the point that he actually seemed to believe it. That was unfortunate: the Republicans' regressive tax plan in 2017 narrowed the eligibility of who would be affected by the estate tax, but the GOP did not scrap it altogether.

That said, the party still wants to. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) issued this press release yesterday about a re-introduced Republican bill.

Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) and fellow lawmakers today reintroduced the Death Tax Repeal Act of 2021 to permanently repeal the federal estate tax, commonly known as the "death tax." The Death Tax Repeal Act would finally end a punitive tax that has the potential to hit family-run farms, ranches and businesses upon the owner's death.

According to the press statement, the new legislation is co-sponsored by half of the Senate Republican conference. It also includes the support of the entirety of the Senate GOP leadership: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is on board, as is Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.C.), who tweeted about the bill late yesteday.

The good news is, Senate Republicans have finally found a policy idea they're eager to work on. The bad news, their policy idea is to give more tax breaks to the wealthiest of the wealthy.

Read more: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/even-now-senate-republicans-seek-another-tax-break-wealthy-n1260448?

[jorgevlorgan]

1. The temporarily embarrassed billionaires (and actual ones) are utraged this has no chance of passing

Everybody else is fine with it.

[cyclonefence]

2. Shame on MSNBC

The estate tax is not commonly known as the "death tax." Republicans call it that to conceal its true nature and intent. Democrats commonly call it "Ivanka's income insurance."

[bamagal62]

3. They are insufferable

[rdking647]

4. instead of repealing it double it

[notinkansas]

5. Immediately after the passage of the covid relief bill - which none of them supported -

they want yet another tax cut. Absolutely unbelievable hubris.

[Baked Potato]

6. Just when I thought they were turning...

Not really.

[joetheman]

7. I believe right now it only applies to estates over 5M???

I could be wrong. That's how they keep generational wealth and their most of their heirs are privileged losers who still find ways to cheat their way into top colleges, buy degrees, avoid military service, and build companies to that seek tax breaks so they never have to pay any taxes. It is a generational racket that the US government supports totally thru taxpayers with low wages, and inflated costs for housing, energy, and most products.

[progree]

9. $11.7 M in 2021. And for a married couple, $23.4 M, though some paperwork

is required in the married couple case.

AAII Journal's annual tax guide says, the $11.70 M "is a per-spouse exlusion and it is portable, meaning that if one spouse dies, the surviving spouse can claim the deceased's exclusion, resulting in a total effective exlcusion of $23.4 million in 2021." (note to myself : p.13)

As far as the paperwork that a married couple has to do to gain the portability, I don't know, something about an A-B trust or marital trust.

These amounts increase according to the chained CPI.

After 2025 those amounts drop in half, thanks to the expiration of the personal tax parts of the Trump tax cuts (the corporate tax cuts are permanent).

Here's something from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities from 2017, written before the Trump tax cuts doubled the exclusion amounts:

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/ten-facts-you-should-know-about-the-federal-estate-tax

[Stallion]

16. Barely Enough for a Poor Millionaire to Survive and Live Life They've Become Accustomed to

[Midnight Writer]

8. This is easy to deflect. Just tell Trump the GOP is trying to take credit for his accomplishment.

Trump throws a hissy, Republicans back down.

[burrowowl]

10. Damn!

Remember the case where the wife of another woman couldn't benefit from the estate because you had to be a man and a woman.
Anyway their argument is horse manure, the GOP cares only about big huge farms or big biz agriculture, small farms can go piss up a rope.
And remember msnbc is still m$nbc, hence death tax.

[Raven123]

11. There is no death tax. I have it on Heavenly authority

[Lonestarblue]

12. Capitol gains on stock that passes at death should be taxed above a certain amount.

One of the easiest ways to pass on wealth with no taxes is through stock that is automatically passed on to heirs. The stock price on the date of death becomes the new basis price, so gains that have accumulated during the life of the original owner are never taxed. I think at least some of those gains should be taxed, just as they would be if the stock were sold—perhaps stock worth more than $5-10 million.

The wealthy have many ways of evading taxes. They do not need more loopholes, they need fewer.

[Maxheader]

13. and the fuckers don't really have a lever...

With a blue congress.

Should die before serious consideration...

[maxrandb]

14. No MSM! It's NOT "commonly known as the Death Tax"

That's what wealthy idiot sons of the 1% and the Retrumplicans prefer that you call it.

This would be like the MSM saying "pro choice, commonly known as baby killing".....

Fucking language matters!

[NNadir]

15. Yeah, we need to be sure the three idiot horsepeople of the apocalypse, Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr...

...inherit lots of money to squander on their ignorance and stupidity.

[jonstl08]

17. Barely effect small business

With the threshold in place now heirs of most small businesses and farms are not taxed at all when the owner passes away. This is just a tax giveaway to the ultra wealthy.

[D23MIURG23]

18. They only know how to do one thing.

Cut taxes to help the richest people in society amass all the wealth at the expense of everyone and everything else.

Its all kleptocracy all the time with them.

[Lettuce Be]

19. No way -- that's the only way to tax the ultra rich

That's absurd. As usual, tax breaks for wealthy is the only issue they've got.

[Hip2bSquare]

20. Kissing the hand that feeds you...

Got to appease your donors. Another big time election coming... Does Moscow Mitch regain senate majority leader? Does McCarthy (god bless us all) become house speaker??

YUGE election coming up in a year and repubs need to kiss the ring and get that donor money. This might help motivate them to donate.

[meow2u3]

21. Republicans have always wanted to ditch the brat tax

They've been on a crusade to shift the tax burden from the superrich to those who can barely make ends meet, all in search of overthrowing democracy and putting an oligarchy in its place. This way, their wealthy donors can line their pockets at taxpayer expense and their spoiled brats, er, heirs can live like royalty without ever having to pay for it.