New Bill Revives GOP Push to Repeal Estate Tax

Republican lawmakers have reintroduced legislation to permanently repeal the estate tax.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., ranking member of the Subcommittee on Taxation and Internal Revenue Service Oversight, along with 40 of his Senate colleagues — including Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee — introduced The Death Tax Repeal Act of 2023 on Thursday.

Thune introduced similar bills in 2017 and 2019.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 did not repeal the death tax, but it did effectively double “the individual estate and gift tax exclusion to $10 million ($12.9 million in 2023) through 2025,” Thune said in a statement, “which prevents more families and generationally owned businesses from being affected by this tax.”

The increased exclusion expires at the end of 2025, Thune said, “which increases uncertainty and planning costs for family-owned businesses, farms and ranches.”

Slott’s Analysis

Ed Slott of Ed Slott and Co., told ThinkAdvisor Tuesday in an email that “since the estate exemption is so high — $12,920,000, per person this year and $25,840,00 for a married couple — most people don’t pay [an] estate tax.”

That being said, “These amounts are scheduled to be cut in half after 2025. But still, the exemption will be high enough to shield well over 99% of taxpayers from this tax. The real issue here is the income tax benefit, which is not mentioned” by Thune’s statement, Slott explained.

“Most people (whose estate values are under the estate exemption amounts) will benefit more from the income tax benefit — the step-up in basis on appreciated assets like their home and stock portfolios,” he pointed out.

The Thune proposal “does not say whether the step-up will be retained, even if there is no estate tax,” Slott said.