Hillary Clinton's Proposed 65% Estate Tax Rate

Hillary Clinton is proposing a 65% tax on the richest estates, making it harder for the wealthy to pass appreciated assets on to their heirs without paying taxes. This increase will generate $260 billion over the next decade, allowing her to pay for plans to simplify small business taxes and expansion on the child tax credit. Further, she is adopting a plan that would impose a 50% tax rate on estates over $10 million a person, a 55% rate starting at $50 million a person, and the top rate of 65%, affecting those with assets exceeding $500 million or $1 billion for married couples. Clinton would also like to repeal the step-up in basis rule, which will carry high capital gains taxes for particular assets inherited. Overall, Clinton would increase taxes by approximately $1.5 trillion in the next decade, which would increase the federal revenue by 4%. 

See Richard Rubin, Hillary Clinton Proposes 65% Top Rate for Estate Tax, Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2016. 

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.