Recently it’s been reported that Sen. Bernie Sanders has planned to introduce an expanded estate tax plan with rates up to 77 percent while he explores another run for the presidency.
Sanders endorsed the plan on social media platform Twitter after The Washington Post first reported it Thursday morning.
Sanders explained that “For the 99.8% Act” would tax the estates of those who inherit more than 3.5 million dollars. Sanders estimates this to be 0.2 percent of the country.
Right now, the estate tax only applies only to individuals who have inherited more than $11 million. This is followed because of the results of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by Republicans.
Debate related to tax policies is currently heated up since the Democrats are trying to dethrone the current President Donald Trump in 2020 try by using the GOP tax law against him.
The debate over tax policy is heating up, as Democrats looking to unseat President Donald Trump in 2020 try to use the GOP tax law against him. The propaganda which was implemented slashed taxes for corporations and included many individual tax cuts that favored the wealthy. This measure did not mostly resonate with voters in midterm congressional elections during the previous year.
From a recent poll that was conducted, it was very evident that most Americans favor raising taxes on the rich.
Here is a look at Sanders’ proposed estate tax rates are:
$3.5 million to $10 million: 45 percent tax
$10 million to $50 million: 50 percent tax
$50 million to $1 billion: 55 percent tax
more than $1 billion: 77 percent tax
The reports from the Post claimed that the plan would raise around $2.2 trillion from 588 billionaires in the United States. But it is not clear that how long it might take for them to raise the money. In an interview about this Bernie Sanders told the Post that over the next ten years the levy would reap $315 billion.
If Bernie Sanders plan were to be implemented, then the estate tax rate will increase to levels that have not seen since 1970. Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell, John Thune, and Chuck Grassley introduced a plan to repeal the estate tax, calling it an “unfair death tax,” earlier this week.
Sanders slamming his GOP colleague’s proposal wrote, “Incredibly, Republican leaders in the Senate have introduced a bill to repeal the estate tax for the richest 1,700 families in America. That’s absurd.” Adding to this “From a moral, economic and political perspective our nation will not thrive when so few have so much, and so many have so little.”
When asked for comment the spokesman of Bernie Sander did not give an immediate response. Bernie Sander bill follows several other tax plans that were introduced by prominent Democrats members in recent weeks.
A 2 percent wealth tax was proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has launched a presidential exploratory committee, on Americans whose net worth is higher than $50 million. Seventy percent marginal tax rate on income over $10 million was proposed by Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Both of these plans have received pushback from Wall Street executives and Republican lawmakers, as well as from former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz who is a one-time Democrat now seriously exploring an independent run for the White House.
Bernie Sander is an independent who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, is considering a run for president in 2020. Bernie Sander came in as the runner-up behind Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary. He introduced bills to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour and lower the costs of prescription drugs, earlier this month.
