Bernie Sanders wants to raise the estate tax to 77 percent for billionaires

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has announced a proposal to reform the estate tax system and drastically raise rates for billionaires.

The For the 99.8% Act, announced by Sanders Thursday, includes new brackets to tax wealth passed down when a person dies. Under the plan, there would be a 45 percent tax on estates between $3.5 million and $10 million, 50 percent on estates between $10 million and $50 million, 55 percent on estates above $50 million, and 77 percent on estates above $1 billion. Current law taxes an individual's earnings in excess of $11 million, but Sanders would lower this minimum to $3.5 million.

Sanders says this plan, which would apply to 0.2 percent of Americans, is intended to "combat rising wealth inequality" and would ultimately "raise $2.2 trillion from the nation's 588 billionaires," although more immediately, Sanders' aides say it will raise $315 billion over the next 10 years, reports The Washington Post. In a statement, Sanders runs through a number of examples to demonstrate how the proposal would apply to specific billionaires, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is around $130 billion and whose family would pay up to $100 billion in estate taxes. The top 77 percent estate tax rate was previously law from 1941 to 1976.

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As Sanders pushes for this plan, Republicans are seeking to eliminate the estate tax entirely. Sanders' proposal also comes after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled her own proposal to tax the wealthiest Americans by introducing a "wealth tax," under which those with more than $50 million in assets would pay a 2 percent tax annually, and Americans with more than $1 billion would pay a 3 percent tax annually. Like Warren, Sanders looks likely to launch a presidential run but has not yet announced his decision.