Preserving the Fiscally Important Estate Tax

The fight to preserve the estate tax is such a vital issue, and as you may well know is being battled in Congress right now. Bruce Herbert's recent opinion in the Seattle PI tells you why.

What you can do

You can contact Maria Cantwell's office to express support for her staying strong on preserving the estate tax:

You can send her a message from her website or by phone

More Details

Excerpts from Tax helps society recoup investment authored by Bruce Herbert and published in the Seattle PI.

"We enjoy the greatest platform for business in the world as a result of governmental investments made and maintained in these and other essential institutions and technologies."

"The estate tax is not a "death tax." It taxes the grateful heirs of large estates who, regardless of how little they did to create the wealth, still receive the lion's share through inheritance. Even after taxes, the heirs still rank among the world's wealthiest people."

"The estate tax breathes life into future opportunity for all. Despite misleading assertions about so-called double taxation, never-before-taxed capital gains represent more than 55 percent of money in large estates; and only the wealthiest are called to pay. Because exemptions allow couples to pass $3 million entirely tax-free, fewer than 1.4 percent of Americans ever pay the tax. This means that 98.6 percent never pay.

What if the estate tax is scrapped? The Brookings Institute calculates schools, churches and other non-profits would lose $10 billion a year in charitable giving. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates gutting this tax would cost society nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. Especially in a time of war, this is fiscally reckless."