A Closer Look at Donald Trump's Claim About Hillary Clinton's Estate Tax Plan

Trump claimed family farmers might have to pay a 65 percent tax.

ByABC News
September 28, 2016, 8:51 PM

— -- Donald Trump suggested to an audience in Iowa on Wednesday that family farmers would pay a 65 percent estate tax rate under Hillary Clinton's proposed tax plan, making it impossible for their children to "hold on to your farms."

But how does that mesh with the facts?

At the event, Trump said, “By the way, for the family farmers, Hillary Clinton’s plan proposes an estate tax of 65 percent, 65 percent. So you are going to have an estate tax of up to 65 percent. Lots of luck having your kids hold on to your farms — not going to happen.”

ABC News' grade: Mostly false

Explanation: Under Clinton’s proposed tax plan, inheritances worth more than $500 million from an individual or $1 billion from a couple would be taxed at a 65 percent rate. But almost certainly no family farm would fall under the top rate.

“In previous discussions of this issue, opponents of the estate tax were unable to find a single case where a family farm had to be sold to pay estate taxes,” Roberton Williams from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center told ABC News.

Currently, every estate worth over $5.45 million from an individual or $10.9 million from a couple is taxed at a flat rate of 40 percent.

Clinton’s proposal would lower that threshold: Estate taxes would apply to inheritances worth more than $3.5 million from an individual or $7 million from a couple, and the rate would range from 45 percent to 65 percent.

Family farms worth less than $3.5 million or $7 million from a couple would be exempt from Clinton’s estate tax.

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