Originally Posted by Guest

Why don't you people get your facts straight. Presently, estates worth $5.45 million or less are exempt from federal estate tax. Beyond that dollar limit, the estate tax kicks in, generally requiring you to pay a tax of 40%. Clinton wants to raise that 40% tax rate to 45%. She also thinks the $5.45 million exemption threshold is too high. She would cut it materially so that more people have to pay estate tax, dropping the exemption amount from $5.45 million to $3.5 million. However, according to the Tax Policy Center, only approximately 10,800 estate tax returns will be filed for deaths in 2015. Of those, less than half (about 5,300) will be taxable. In that sense, the dollars at stake are arguably not too significant.

Proponents of the estate tax argue that it helps to stop wealthy people from getting even wealthier, generation after generation. They see the estate tax as helping to curtail dynasties, keeping them from growing unchecked. Trump, on the other hand, favors getting rid of the state tax. And being a billionaire, would benefit enormously from an estate tax repeal.