Van Hollen Introduces Bill to Strengthen Social Security by Ending Republicans’ Tax Giveaways for Ultra-Wealthy Estates

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) reintroduced the Strengthen Social Security by Taxing Dynastic Wealth Act, legislation to improve the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund with revenue generated by undoing Republicans' major cuts to the estate tax in 2017 and 2025 which have enabled the richest families in America to pass down vast wealth from generation to generation. This bill returns the estate tax to 2009 levels and invests those funds in Americans' retirement security.

"Donald Trump and Republicans are fueling the rise of an American aristocracy through their massive tax giveaways for the wealthy - including their cuts to the estate tax that have allowed the country's richest people to leave increasingly exorbitant sums of wealth to their heirs. These are handouts to those who are already well off, given at the expense of investing in shared prosperity for all. This legislation ends Republicans' estate tax giveaway and uses the proceeds to help shore up Social Security, an important step toward ensuring that Americans who work for a living - not just the wealthy few - can have financial security when they retire," said Senator Van Hollen.

This bill has been endorsed by Social Security Works.

"Thank you to Senator Van Hollen for introducing this essential legislation, which would strengthen our Social Security system while also greatly reducing inequality. Over 220 years ago, founding father Thomas Paine advocated for using an estate tax to pay for pensions for older Americans and people with disabilities. This bill would make Paine's vision a reality," said Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works.

The Strengthen Social Security by Taxing Dynastic Wealth Act:

• Raises the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes back to the levels they were at in 2009, as follows:
• • Increases the top estate and gift tax rate from 40 percent to 45 percent.
  • Exempts the first $3.5 million of an individual's estate from estate taxes ($7 million for married couples).
  • • Currently, the first $15 million for an individual and the first $30 million for a couple is exempted from a unified estate and gift tax.
  • Sets the lifetime exemption limit for gifts at $1 million for an individual ($2 million for married couples).
  • Maintains the generation-skipping transfer tax as an anti-abuse measure to prevent circumvention of estate taxes, and as under current law, the parameters of that tax would conform to the new estate tax parameters.

• Combines Social Security's two trust funds - the Old Age and Survivors fund and the Disability Insurance fund - into a single trust fund.
• Deposits all of the revenues from the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes into the Social Security OASI/DI Trust Fund.

Text of the bill can be viewed here.