John,

Even before the pandemic began, many families and communities were hurting―living paycheck to paycheck, just one emergency away from financial ruin.

President Biden understands that in order to build a United States for the future, we need major investments in jobs and services that will benefit working families and communities.  

That’s why, in the coming weeks, the president is expected to introduce the American Family Plan―a major tax and investment plan that will make healthcare and childcare affordable for millions, fund free public community college, provide paid family and medical leave, extend working family tax credits that will cut child poverty nearly in half, and more. To help finance these investments the plan will require the wealthy to begin to pay their fair share of taxes.

To ensure millionaires and billionaires are paying their fair share, we need to tax accumulated wealth. And, other than a wealth tax, which President Biden has said he will not support right now, the estate tax is the best way to tax big fortunes.

Recently, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the For the 99.5% Act, which strengthens the estate tax to more fairly tax dynastic wealth as it’s passed down from generation to generation. We need to make sure that a stronger estate tax, along the lines of Sanders’s bill, is included in President Biden’s forthcoming proposal.

The best way to ensure the estate tax gets strengthened is by ensuring it is included in the Biden administration’s proposed legislation.

Sign the petition to President Biden, calling on him to include the For the 99.5% Act or similar improvements to the estate tax in his upcoming tax proposal.

America’s yawning wealth gap continues to widen. The richest 1% own nearly 31% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 50% own just 2%, according to the Federal Reserve Board.[1]

During the presidential campaign Joe Biden pledged to return the estate tax to its 2009 levels, when he was Vice President. This would require estates worth at least $3.5 million to pay the estate tax, rather than the $11.7 million threshold that now exists because of Trump’s tax giveaways to the rich. That $3.5 million level is the starting point for paying the estate tax under the Sanders bill, and it only affects 0.5% of estates.[2] That essentially means no small businesses and family farms will be affected, like today.[3]

This reform will raise $230 billion to invest in creating jobs, helping working families and rebuilding struggling communities[4]

The wealthy have assembled a powerful lobbying operation to pressure President Biden to back off strengthening the estate tax. We can’t let that happen.

Tell President Biden to strengthen the estate tax by returning to the 2009 levels, as he called for on the campaign trail―and include this critical reform in his upcoming American Family Plan tax and investment proposal.

Together, we have the opportunity to make a once-in-a-lifetime investment in U.S. families and communities. And that starts by ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share.

Thank you,

Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] “Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. since 1989,” Federal Reserve System, Apr. 13, 2021

[2] “Penn Wharton Budget Model Scores Sanders and Biden Plans to Tax the Rich,” Jan. 23, 2020

[3] “Who pays the estate tax?,” Tax Policy Center, May 2020

[4] “How could we reform the estate tax?,” Tax Policy Center, May 2020