President-elect Donald Trump — and many others — has heralded plans to abolish the “death tax” along with other sweeping changes to the tax code.

While we are certainly in favor of smart, reasonable changes in the tax code, we also are suspicious of motives behind some of the proposed changes.

Eliminating the “death tax” certainly sounds like a good idea on the surface.

What decent human being wants to tax someone who has died?

The problem is the death tax is merely a euphemistic way of saying “estate” tax.

And the proposed changes will mostly affect only the very wealthiest of Americans.

Besides, the estate tax problem was resolved a few years back.

The Republican-led Congress along with the Democratic president settled most of the uncertainty about the estate tax in 2012 when they worked out a compromise.

The deal they struck provided much clarity to the previously murky tax by setting a strong exemption level and adjusting that level annually with inflation.

Currently a married couple is exempt of tax for $10.9 million in their estate.

Very few Americans — likely 1 percent or less — will benefit from abolishing the tax outright.

Clearly Trump along with many members of Congress and their families would personally benefit from the tax change.

The estate tax is of course just a single aspect of the proposed tax plan. As proposed, the tax brackets poised to earn the greatest tax break will be the people whose earnings are north of $400,000 each year.

Like the “death tax” that doesn’t hit nearly as many middle class citizens as campaign promises foretold.

Hopefully, the plan will change before Trump takes office.