Estate tax repeal is a big agenda item for national Republicans and one that Republican Peter Roskam has trumpeted as he campaigns for congress in the Illinois 6th District to replace Congressman Henry Hyde. But just how many people would repealing the estate tax help in the 6th District where the median household income was $62,640 according to the 2000 Census?
Take a look at this chart from Citizens for Tax Justice (pdf).
In 2003 105,325 Illinois residents throughout the state died. The next year (2004) when most taxes on estates from 2003 were due only 1,395 owed federal estate tax - 1.3%. That 1.3%, however, was when the first $3 million was deductible - in 2006 the IRS will permit the first $4 million to be deducted. That means even fewer estates will likely be taxable.
Residents in the 6th Congressional District will have a choice in November. They can vote to help some of the wealthiest people in Illinois - people with over $4 million estates - get a tax break, or they can vote in the interests of the vast majority of Illinois residents who pay their fair share of taxes. On this issue Peter Roskam thinks making 1.3% of Illinois residents wealthier will carry his campaign - so he can ignore the other 98.7% of Illinois residents on the issue of fair taxation.
Meanwhile, Tammy Duckworth, Roskam’s opponent, believes that a much higher tax priority for most people should be reforming the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which one study showed may hit DuPage County harder than almost any other county in the United States. In simple terms the AMT, which applies to about 1% of the wealthiest households, forcing them to pay a minimum amount of tax, is about to expand by default and could affect about 30% of all taxpayers, many of them middle class. A married couple with a child, for example, could owe around $4,700 in new additional taxes. That’s $4,700 extra each year these taxpayers live. It’s your choice and it’s about priorities. You can vote to help fewer than 1,400 rich Illinois taxpayers throughout the state get an estate tax break - or help millions of American taxpayers, including a hundred thousand or more in the 6th District, avoid paying thousands in new additional taxes each year. If you believe in fair taxation, this one is pretty easy. Give Tammy your support.
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