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The Democratic Party’s go-to solution for almost every issue is a tax increase. From income to corporate, property, and sales taxes, Democrats rarely encounter a tax hike they don’t support. With Kamala Harris as their presidential nominee, taxes could reach new heights.
While Harris and the Democrats often focus on “the rich” not paying their fair share and corporations profiteering at the expense of average Americans, their plans for estate taxes—commonly known as “death taxes”—receive far less attention. Yet, under a Harris administration, the question of how much estates should be taxed at death will become a central issue.
The American Business Defense Foundation warns that under Harris’s economic and tax plans, the number of Americans subject to the death tax would dramatically increase. Harris has repeatedly stated that she intends to let the Trump tax cuts expire in 2025 if elected. Under Trump’s 2018 tax plan, the estate tax exemption currently stands at $13.6 million. However, if the cuts expire, the exemption will revert to its pre-2018 level of $5 million, adjusted for inflation.
Stephen Moore, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and economic advisor to Trump, explains the implications in an op-ed:
“Kamala wants this to happen. She wants to soak the millionaires and billionaires. But under her plan, thousands more families will be clobbered by this tax when a parent dies. This brings new meaning to the idea of ‘the grim reaper.’”
Moore highlights that this isn’t just about ultra-wealthy individuals like Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, who have found ways to shelter their wealth. Instead, small business owners, farmers, and ranchers who have worked their entire lives building million-dollar enterprises could be forced to sell their businesses after a family member’s death just to pay the taxes. After already paying millions in various taxes during their lifetimes, they could now face a 40% estate tax rate, plus another 5-15% depending on the state.
In Moore’s words, “roughly half of a family inheritance must be forked over to the politicians. The IRS gets almost as much as the kids and grandkids. The agents should at least pay their respects at the funeral!”
But it gets worse. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who Moore describes as a “non-declared, dyed-in-the-wool socialist,” has introduced a bill to hike the estate tax even further. Warren’s plan would not only increase the rate to as high as 55-65%, but it would also lower the exemption to $3.5 million, meaning many more estates would be subject to taxation.
“Harris loves Warren’s bill,” Moore claims.
If Warren’s plan becomes law under a Harris presidency, the U.S. would have the highest estate tax rates in the world, surpassing even Russia, China, and the socialist nations of Europe. The effect, according to Moore, would be devastating: older Americans would be incentivized to spend down their estates to avoid the tax, family businesses wouldn’t survive beyond one generation, and the death tax would destroy jobs and investment.
Moore asks, “Is the IRS going to seize grandma’s jewelry or grandpa’s stable of horses and the mansion he built himself?” If Harris wins the White House and Democrats gain control of Congress, the answer, Moore suggests, would be an emphatic: “Of course they will. Eagerly so.”
