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The House of Representatives gave 25 of the nation’s billionaires a $334 billion tax break on April 16 when it voted 240-179 to repeal the estate tax. The nearly 100-year old tax raises $27 billion a year for the US government. Of the 2,662,000 Americans who died in 2013, just 3,700 of their estates paid any estate tax – one out of every 700 estates.

Of the nation’s 25 wealthiest billionaires, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Carl Icahn have all campaigned publicly to keep a strong estate tax. In contrast, the Mars family has been a big funder of efforts to repeal the tax.

The repeal would allow the nation’s wealthiest citizens to pass on all of their enormous wealth to their heirs with no taxes paid. The chart below outlines how much the 25 richest Americans would owe if their entire estates were subject to a 40 percent tax rate – after the first $5.4 million in wealth was excluded.

Billionaire
Wealth Source
Wealth
(in $ Billions)
Estate Tax @ 40%
(In $ Billions)

Bill Gates
Microsoft
81.0
32.4

Warren Buffett
Berkshire […]