Mysterious $7B estate tax payment spurs questions about source of funds

foxbusiness.com:

FOX Business Correspondent Madison Alworth and Kennedy Saves The World host Kennedy discuss U.S. tax structure on Making Money. 

A mysterious influx of more than $7 billion in estate tax payments to the Treasury Department early last year spurred a search for the billionaire responsible for the anomalous payment.

The massive payment was first discovered by John Ricco, who is currently the associate director of policy analysis for the Yale Budget Lab. Ricco told FOX Business that the Daily Treasury Statement has shown an average payment of $86 million in estate taxes paid per day since 2019, but by contrast, the record for Feb. 28, 2023, showed $7.075 billion in estate tax receipts – almost 80-times the normal amount.

Based on data going back to 1993, Ricco compiled the top 10 days by estate tax receipts which ranged from $907 billion on April 12, 2024, to the $1.613 billion in estate taxes received on March 8, 2010. He said that Feb. 28, 2023, «was much larger than any previous record.» 

He also noticed that «almost all of these days are during tax season – days when there is some kind of legal filing deadline, so the IRS is receiving many payments at once. But that's not the case for Feb. 28, 2023, which was just some ordinary day as far as tax rules are concerned. That was a major clue that something strange was going on.»

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An unusually $7 billion large estate tax payment was received by the Treasury Department and IRS in February 2023. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The odd nature of the payment spurred journalist Tim Fernholz to investigate who might've been responsible for the payment, which he most recently chronicled in an article for Sherwood. 

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