St. Louis Congressman Jim Talent, chairman of the Small Business Committee, says pressure to eliminate the estate tax comes from small business owners and farmers. And he dismisses suggestions good estate planning can avoid the tax. Heirs are required to pay up to 55-percent of the estate’s total value to the government, but the first 675-Thousand dollars is exempt. Created in 1916, the estate tax generates 28 billion dollars a year. Critics of its repeal claim the big winners will be the wealthy.
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