Four months into the 117
th United States Congress, the anticipated federal legislative proposals to restructure the federal estate tax are finally seeing the light of day. Senator Bernie Sanders and others recently introduced the For the 99.5% Act (the “Act”). True to its name, the Act takes direct aim at income and wealth inequality through a series of proposed changes that, if passed, will result in a larger number of estates (and trusts) paying more federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (“GST”) taxes. The following is a short overview of many of the Act’s more significant revisions to the federal estate tax. There is no certainty on when, how, or if the federal estate tax will change, so taxpayers remain in a bit of wait-and-see mode.