The Forgotten Rich - Estate Tax

[groovedaddy]

The Senate budget debate began this week against a backdrop of war and recession, rising unemployment and surging foreclosures, runaway health care costs and diminishing insurance coverage — to name just a few of the nation’s big problems. But for Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas, and Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, the most pressing issue is clear: America’s wealthiest families need help. Now.

The two senators plan to propose an amendment to deeply cut estate taxes for the fraction of the top 1 percent of the population still subject to those levies.

The proverbial millionaires next door — the plumbers, contractors and accountants who amass substantial wealth through hard work and modest living — are not the intended beneficiaries of the proposed cut. The Obama budget already takes care of them, because it retains today’s law, which imposes the estate tax only on couples with property worth more than $7 million, or individuals with property worth more than $3.5 million. That means 99.8 percent of estates will never — ever — pay a penny of estate tax.

The heirs of the remaining 0.2 percent of estates are who Ms. Lincoln and Mr. Kyl are so worried about. Their amendment would increase to $10 million the level at which the estate tax kicks in. It would also lower the top estate-tax rate to 35 percent from 45 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/opinion/02thu1.html?th&emc=th

[redqueen]

1. That is insulting.

To put forward something like that, during these times... disgusting and insulting.

[annabanana]

2. These massive, generational, fortune transferals SHOULD

be taxed, a lot.

The recipient has done nothing, nothing but exist, and these huge lakes of capital distort the social fabric to near breaking.

[groovedaddy]

3. I firmly believe that such transferred wealth is a form of "royalty" couched in "property rights" nt

[redqueen]

4. Of course it is. The initial reason for it was to

guard against the growth of an aristocracy.

Oh well... Jefferson tried, at least.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. The really rich will never pay it anyway

They hire attorneys and accountants who specialize in this area and figure out ways to hide, move or transfer assets so they are not part of the estate.

[annabanana]

6. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have one....

Someone who wants to kill someone will figure out a way to do it.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't outlaw murder...

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Whart really needs to done is to massively SIMPLIFY the tax system

It way too complex. The people in charge of it do not know it as well as those who have specialized tax accountants and lawyers. Gut it and start over and build a simple progressive system that can not be easily gotten round. Estate taxes should be reviewed as part of that process and applied as reasonable.

No I am not advocating the Forbes Fair Tax plan, but they have some good points about the complexity which clearly favors the rich