Estate tax

The greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world is underway and two thirds finished. The baby boomers are in the process of transferring $120 trillion dollars to their heirs the Millennials and Gen X. The baby boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964 and the Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996 and Gen Xer’s were born 1965 to 1980. Since there are 135 million Millennials and Xer’s that comes to $888,000 each. This figure gives a false impression of the real facts which are that 60% of Americans will inherit less than $5,000. This further increases the wealth gap and brings forth calls for an inheritance tax. Currently the first $14 million is exempt from federal estate tax. Last year the government collected $20 billion in estate tax. The exemption will drop to $7 million if the 2017 tax cuts are not renewed. Those pushing to renew could do so and allow the estate tax exemption to drop to $7 million. This would help to pay for the no tax on TIPS.