Estate Tax Payers Outnumbered by Moon Walkers
On his April 17th show, Bill Maher made an “out-of-this world” comparison to undermine the argument that the estate tax threatens the livelihoods of “family farmers.” Of the 5,000 Americans who paid the estate tax in 2013, twenty farmers paid it. Maher compared that number to the twenty-four Americans who have been to the moon. “More astronauts have been to the moon than farmers who paid the inheritance tax.”
While seemingly absurd, Maher’s claim is mostly true. According to the Tax Policy Center, an estimated 20 small farms and small businesses would have had to pay the estate tax in 2013, accounting to a total of $6.9 million of tax with an average tax rate of 4.9 percent. Alan D. Viard, scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, says the estate tax has flaws, but the effect on farmers is “just not the right grounds to criticize this tax.” He believes Maher’s point was strong.
See Katie Sanders, Bill Maher Says More Americans Have Been to the Moon Than Farmers Who Paid the Estate Tax in 2013, Politifact, Apr. 23, 2015.