Letter to the Editor: Freeze the estate tax
The Sun got it right in its December 10 editorial (“The forgotten tax cut“). Tax breaks for the scions of multi-millionaires will not create jobs, nor help average, hardworking Maryland families. But they would take tens of millions of dollars away from public investment in schools, hospitals, safe communities and other building blocks of a strong economy.
The fact is that middle-class Marylanders were never subject to the state’s estate tax. Even before changes in 2014, the tax only applied to the top 3 percent of estates. Further, no money or property that a surviving spouse inherits is subject to Maryland’s tax and several provisions exempt most family farms. By 2019, fewer than 250 estates — less than 1 percent — will owe estate tax in any given year.
