The latest incarnation of a Republican tax \u201cplan\u201d includes repealing the estate tax. Republicans love to give it an evil connotation by referring to it as \u201cthe death tax.\u201d They claim that they want to repeal it\u00a0 to help \u201cfamily farms and other family owned businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are, of course, lying about all of it. The new tax \u201cplan\u201d is not a plan at all: It doesn\u2019t reflect new thinking about taxation; it\u2019s not based on a new theory of economics. It\u2019s just a mishmash of giveaways to America\u2019s richest people [who are also, not coincidentally, the biggest donors to Republican candidates], paid for by hurtful takeaways from lower-income taxpayers. If there\u2019s a philosophy involved, it\u2019s steal from the poor and give to the rich.<\/p>\n

But the spin about this being a middle-class tax cut is just one of the big lies Republicans are peddling as they rush their tax bill through Congress, preferably under cover of darkness. The estate-tax gambit is also riddled with falsehoods.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what Republicans have said about the estate tax:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, this tax has threatened family-owned businesses\u2014including women- and minority-owned businesses\u2014from being passed down to their children and grandchildren,\u201d says Representative Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. But he is wrong, and not by accident. He is spinning and lying as fast as he can.<\/p>\n

So, who actually pays estate taxes? An editorial in today\u2019s New York Times<\/a> lists three categories of people:<\/p>\n

\n
1. \n

   The top 0.2 percent. Some 11,300 American estates\u2014about 0.2 percent\u2014are estimated to be subject to the estate tax this year [2017]. The top tenth of income earners pay nearly 90 percent of estate taxes collected, and about one fourth of that total is paid by the richest 0.1 percent\u2026Today, an inheritance must be larger than $5.49 million for an individual, or $10.98 million for a couple for their heirs to be liable for any estate tax at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/p>\n

   How does your estate measure up? Unless you are Steve Mnuchin, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg, or<\/p>\n

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