Administration may block estate tax rules

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration took a step toward blocking stricter enforcement of estate and gift taxes Friday, describing a set of proposed rules as overly burdensome.

The new rules, put forward last year by the Obama administration, would increase the taxes owed by some wealthy families. Lawyers and experts on the estate tax say that taxpayers have substantial leeway in determining how much their estates are worth and, as a result, how much they have to pay.

The Obama administration’s rules were intended to enforce the tax more strictly, but the new administration might prevent them from going into effect.

Wealthy Americans pay estate and gift taxes when they die or when they pass wealth on to their heirs. The tax is primarily paid by the very richest families. Just 0.18 percent of people who died last year paid estate taxes, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The center also estimates that 88 percent of the total estate taxes that are paid comes from people in the richest 10 percent of the income distribution.

Very few Americans are rich enough to pay the estate tax, but the tax could affect many of Trump’s wealthy advisers. The majority of Trump’s Cabinet, including 13 of the 24 members, are potentially subject to the estate tax, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

Republicans have long argued that the estate tax creates unacceptable burdens on middle-class taxpayers who have substantial assets, such as farmers or owners of small businesses.