The battle over the estate tax has been growing in intensity over the years due to both parties seizing on the issue as a token of being on the “right” side of the political divide. Be it Bernie Sanders and his desire to increase the tax and enforcement to the myriad Republicans who near universally oppose the tax in any form, the issue has been put into the forefront. In response, a reform bill that would not repeal the tax but instead allow a person that will face the tax to pay a fee before death to substitute for the death duty. While he bill was introduced with sponsors from both parties, it is unlikely to see the light of day due to its compromise nature. The sad fact is that neither party is truly interested in creating sound policy because the tax’s mere existence, in its current form, gives everyone an avenue of attack on the other side using whatever sophistry is popular at the moment. Let us hope that saner minds will eventually emerge to craft a sound policy that, while impossible to satisfy everyone, will at least bring the issue to a fair resolution for society as well as those burdened by the levy.
See David H. Lenok, Bi-Partisan Estate Tax Reform Bill Introduced, Wealth Management, September 24, 2015.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.
