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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