Current law contains protections for family farms and businesses. Spouses can inherit estates of any size without any tax liability. The wealthiest multimillionaire families would get a giant tax break. The estate tax is not double taxation. A majority of the value of the largest estates have never been subject to taxation.
Heirs inherit the assets at their full, appreciated value.
Without the estate tax, those gains would remain untaxed forever. That's more than double the total amount of federal income taxes paid by the bottom half of all taxpayers. No estate tax is due on funds bequeathed to charities. Experts say charities would lose substantially after a repeal. That's less than the income tax rate paid by many middle Americans.