PRINTER'S NO. 2747
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
616
Session of
2017
INTRODUCED BY DeLUCA, NOVEMBER 27, 2017
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON FINANCE, NOVEMBER 27, 2017
A RESOLUTION
Memorializing the Congress of the United States to keep the
Federal estate tax intact and to not have it repealed.
WHEREAS, Repealing the estate tax, a tax on assets
transferred from a deceased individual to their heirs, has
become a perennial talking point among conservatives and is the
subject of a proposed repeal by the Trump administration; and
WHEREAS, The estate tax has been an important source of
Federal revenue for a century; and
WHEREAS, Only 0.2% of estates are included in the tax,
meaning 99.8% of estates owe no tax at all, due to the extremely
high dollar threshold and thus constitute the wealthiest of the
wealthiest in America; and
WHEREAS, The threshold has gone from $650,000 per person in
2001 to approximately $5.5 million per person in 2017; and
WHEREAS, The estate tax is a tax on very large inheritances
by an extremely small group of extremely wealthy heirs; and
WHEREAS, By erroneously labeling it a death tax and implying
that it would hurt ordinary families and force the sale of
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family farms and businesses, the estate tax has been
successfully misrepresented as a countrywide and universal
burden, distorting the truth and confusing the public at large;
and
WHEREAS, Nationwide only 20 farms a year pay estate taxes,
according to the Tax Policy Center, equating to fewer than 1 in
100,000 farms; and
WHEREAS, It is clearly false that the estate tax keeps
ordinary Americans from passing down savings to their heirs
because the estate tax is only triggered at $5.5 million for an
individual or approximately $11 million for a couple; and
WHEREAS, Current law does not require an estate tax for a
family estate under $11 million: a married couple who managed to
save and leave $10.9 million to their children would not pay a
single penny; and
WHEREAS, It has been claimed that a wealth transfer tax,
including the estate tax, would be more accurately called a
silver spoon tax than a death tax; and
WHEREAS, The amount of tax that is being proposed to be
exempt is staggering, averaging more than $3 million apiece for
the top 0.2% of Americans and more than $20 million for the
wealthiest estates; and
WHEREAS, That amount would equate to more than the Federal
Government spends on the Food and Drug Administration, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental
Protection Agency combined; and
WHEREAS, Repealing the estate tax would be a windfall for
billionaires and others whose fortunes would forever escape
taxation and thus create a larger and more durable inheritance
class who owe their riches to their parents and not their
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individual efforts; and
WHEREAS, The estate tax is the most progressive part of the
tax code because it affects only those who are most able to pay;
and
WHEREAS, Repealing the estate tax would eliminate the
nation's most effective tax policy tool in balancing the impacts
of large inheritances; and
WHEREAS, Inheritances account for about 40% of all household
wealth and are extremely concentrated at the top, contributing
to inequality and a lack of economic mobility from one
generation to the next; and
WHEREAS, A measure that would entrench a permanent class able
to pass along enormous wealth from generation to generation
without any recompense to the society that enabled its success
runs counter to our shared values; and
WHEREAS, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said "inherited economic
power is as inconsistent with the ideals of this generation as
inherited political power was inconsistent with the ideals of
the generation which established our government"; and
WHEREAS, The wealthiest persons in our country owe their
success to the hard work of generations of Americans before them
and the existence of an infrastructure that has allowed them to
succeed; and
WHEREAS, Accordingly, these persons have an obligation to pay
forward with a return to investment in the success of current
and future generations; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania memorialize the Congress of the
United States to keep the Federal estate tax intact and to not
have it repealed; and be it further
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RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to
the presiding officers of each house of Congress and to the
members of Congress from Pennsylvania.
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