Posted on 11/18/2012 6:59:19 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Is it "fair" that the federal government be able to take more than half the wealth created by estates of more than $3.5 million at the time of death?
Of course it is, says the left - even if 97% of farmers and ranchers will be impacted.
Fox News:
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Two decades ago, Kester paid the IRS $2 million when he inherited a 22,000-acre cattle ranch from his grandfather. Come January, the tax burden on his children will be more than $13 million.
For supporters of a high estate tax, which is imposed on somebody's estate after death, Kester is the kind of person they rarely mention. He doesn't own a mansion. He's not the CEO of a multi-national. But because of his line of work, he owns a lot of property that would be subject to a lot of tax.
"Our number one goal is to repeal the estate tax, to get rid of it, not have it for every generation, when I die and my kids die and so on," he told Fox News. "For everyone to have to re-purchase the ranch or farm over and over for each generation, that's inherently unjust. So what we're doing is asking our politicians to understand that and repeal the estate tax."
That, however, is unlikely. Currently, the federal government taxes estates worth $5 million dollars and up at 35 percent. When the Bush-era tax rates expire in January, rates increase to 55 percent on estates of $1 million or more. While some Republicans want to eliminate the death tax entirely, President Obama has proposed a 45 percent rate on estates of $3.5 million and up.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
"The idea behind the estate tax is to prevent the very wealthy among us from accumulating vast fortunes that they can pass along to the next generation," said Patrick Lester, director of Federal Fiscal Policy with the progressive think tank -- OMB Watch. "The poster child for the estate tax is Paris Hilton -- the celebrity and hotel heiress. That's who this is targeted at, not ordinary Americans."
NOTE THE OBSESSION WITH PARIS HILTON.
The logic is to punish everyone else in order to get at Paris Hilton.
Fur shur I could use the money, and there are several large foundations out there that need to be distributed to the heirs ~ meaning me!
If anything Paris is the poster child for what's wrong with our inheritance laws.
I wonder... should America design her tax laws around trying to net families like the Hilton’s?
America’s tax and inheritance laws certainly drove Paris Hilton to prostitution ~ poor girl.
Folks with taxable estates should just begin marrying their children and grandchildren. The trend is toward other than normal marriage. Is there some test of sexual contact that validates a new marriage? It seems to me the argument has become about fairness and the ability to marry those one loves. Surely marrying one’s progeny conforms to the new normal. Once an old fart is finished marrying and divorcing his children and grandchildren, the distribution of assets would have taken place through the dissolution of marriages and the government will have been denied its last bite of the apple.
Even Rose Kennedy, who spend the last ten years of her life in Massachusetts, stayed a Florida resident to evade state taxes.
So don't tell me that a small businessman or farmer who worked all of his life for a few million dollars should have the fillings ripped out of his corpse when the bigwigs on the left hide their fortunes from the tax.
This is the federal mob we are talking about.
Oh, your mom just died? **** you, pay me.
The death tax is tyrannical and just palin evil. I cannot believe that it exists in The USA. Sad, sad, sad. Our founding fathers would be disgusted.
Even when it was happening, I was 99% sure that she was behind the release of her sex tape. She knew $5M wouldn’t last with her lifestyle. That sleazy little wench is probably smarter than we realize.
Lets shine some light here.
1) Very few pay the estate tax. They manage around it with charitable gifts they still control and trusts.
2) Eliminating the estate tax does not eliminate tax, it merely changes when and how it is paid. If property does not get a “stepped up basis” in the estate, it retains the purchase cost and there is gain when the inherited items are sold.
3) I may be one of the few here but I do fear concentration of power and wealth. Unfortunately the estate tax does not prevent this..................................
The inheritance tax needs to be cut to 10% with a 10 million dollar exemption (currently 35% with a 5 million exempt and 55% and 1 million if we go over the fiscal cliff).
If we go back to 55% and 1 million, what the rich people do is set up a charitable foundation which inherits the money (no tax because it is charity) with the board members all family who get paid free travel when on foundation business (it is like taxpayers paying for congressional junkets), and paid health care, a nice salary (just like United Way), free car, etc.
Two down and one to go ~ but that lady is bipolar and was busy getting through the marriage, divorce, have babies part of her life while off her meds ~ a major, but to most, invisible sacrifice.
Pretty much somes up our empathetic government.
This is why so many ‘family’ farms have been incorporated. In this region, farming wheat takes several sections (640 acres/section—a square mile). Add in the cost of the equipment to till, plant, and harvest, and the equipment alone is over a million. Try to pay the death tax out of the thin margins of profit, and you end up selling the farm (enough of it to keep it economically viable) to inherit it.
Many estate tax laws have been written to solve this such as special valuation for assets for family members that continue in the business.
But yet, the problem still "exists" because it is useful politically
In Louisiana, you can’t die without a lawyer. At death, a decedent’s bank account is frozen until a succession is done.
All private property (land) should actually be owned by the state and you should rent, not own, this land. This is the precept that the Marxism left operates under. They hate the fact that wealth can be passed down to heirs instead of going to The State. The key thing here is to create a utopia in which the worker bees are so busy having to scratch out a living (serfs) that they don’t have the time or energy to protest the corrupt government. Through taxation and inflation they will grind us down into virtual slaves and have income equality. While the 47% (plus the usual idiots) will cheer this on.
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