GOP Senators Reintroduce Bill to Repeal Estate Tax

McConnell added in the statement that “our historic tax reform legislation provided major relief from this burden to many Kentuckians — especially those in farming and rural communities. Now is the time for our Democratic colleagues to join us to take the next step to repeal the death tax once and for all.”

But winning over Senate and House Democrats is an uphill battle.

Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told ThinkAdvisor in an email message that the GOP bill “is likely to be a nonstarter with Democrats since it would double down on one of the policies in the 2017 tax cut that not a single Democrat voted for.”

If policymakers want to reduce taxes on couples with estates of over $22 million, Akabas continued, “they need to think about who will ultimately foot that bill in the future.”

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Akabas added, “the estate tax is projected to annually bring in $27 billion per year. Even if that was paid for by making every single taxpayer contribute more — from those under the poverty line all the way up to the top one percent — taxes would need to rise by about $150 per household. I doubt the average American wants to pay that to give multimillionaires bigger inheritances.”