Kamala Harris Wants America to Have the World's Highest Death Tax!

Stephen Moore on Oct 15, 2024

Here is something no one in the media is reporting as Vice President Kamala Harris continues to duck and weave like Muhammad Ali in the ring to avoid any questions about her economic plan.

The American Business Defense Foundation reports that under the Harris tax plan, the number of Americans subject to the hated death tax would double or triple. This would happen because Harris has declared she will let the Trump tax cut expire next year if she becomes president.

Thanks to the Trump tax cut, the amount of an estate that is currently exempt from tax is roughly $13.6 million.

But according to the IRS: "Under the tax reform law, the increase is only temporary. Thus, in 2026, the exemption is due to revert to its pre-2018 level of $5 million, as adjusted for inflation."

Kamala wants this to happen. She wants to soak the millionaires and billionaires. But under her plan, thousands more families will be clobbered by this tax when a parent dies. This brings new meaning to the idea of "the grim reaper."

We aren't talking about the very rich -- people like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who are already subject to the unfair death tax. (Though these super billionaires have built massive family foundation tax shelters to escape the tax.)

Now many farms, ranches and family-owned businesses will have to be sold after a funeral just to pay the taxes. These are mostly owners and operators of small businesses that have been built up over a lifetime to million-dollar-plus enterprises. The owners have already paid Uncle Sam millions of dollars of income, property, payroll, energy, business and other taxes and annual levies.

Now they will have to pay a 40% estate tax rate, plus another 5 to 15% depending on what state they die in. In other words, roughly half of a family inheritance must be forked over to the politicians. The IRS gets almost as much as the kids and grandkids. The agents should at least pay their respect at the funeral!

How is that fair?

But wait. It gets worse.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has introduced a bill to make the death tax even more onerous. Under her bill, the estate tax rate would rise to as high as 55% to 65%, and the exemption would lower to $3.5 million. This means that as much as two-thirds of an estate could be seized by the government. This isn't taxation. It's confiscation of family property. Is the IRS going to seize grandma's jewelry or grandpa's stable of horses and the mansion he built himself?

Will family businesses have to undergo the indignity of a fire sale to vulture companies just to pay the taxes owed?

Guess who supports the Warren tax scheme? Yes, Harris thinks this is a swell idea.

Incredibly, if the Warren tax came to pass, the United States -- the land of the free -- would have the highest estate tax in the world.

Higher than Russia. Higher than China. Higher than the socialist nations of Europe.

The real-world impact of death taxes this high is that older people will avoid the death tax by lavishly spending down the family estate so that there is no money left to tax. The incentive is to die broke. Family businesses won't be able to pass from one generation to the next. This is how the death tax destroys jobs and investment.

By contrast, former President Donald Trump will make his death tax relief permanent. Family businesses and estates will remain vibrantly intact.

This is one of many vital tax issues voters should consider on Election Day.

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Stephen Moore is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He is also an economic advisor to the Trump campaign. His new book, coauthored with Arthur Laffer, is "The Trump Economic Miracle."