Posted on 09/06/2024 8:34:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Vice President Kamala Harris is on record in support of a Death Tax hike, including plans to impose a second Death Tax by taking away stepped-up basis when parents die.
Harris’ plans to increase the Death Tax are yet another example of the candidate’s willingness to punish hardworking Americans for their success, this time punitively hitting families experiencing the death of a loved one.
Under current law, the cost basis of assets passing directly to heirs receives a “step-up” to its fair market value. Without stepped-up basis, family-owned businesses would be stranded with a massive tax on unrealized gains after the passing of the owner.
Harris has not been shy in taking ownership of Biden-Harris FY 2025 budget, noting in a March post on X that the budget plan was jointly put forward by her and President Joe Biden.
Harris’ proposal to take away stepped-up basis has already been tried, and it failed: In 1976 Congress eliminated stepped-up basis but it was so complicated and unworkable it was repealed before it took effect.
As noted in a July 3, 1979 New York Times article, "the new law touched off a flood of complaints as unfair and impossibly unworkable. So many, in fact, that last year Congress retroactively delayed the law’s effective date until 1980 while it struggled again with the issue.”
Harris has also proposed a separate plan to increase the rate of the existing federal Death Tax and increase the number of taxpayers subject to the tax. Harris personally authored a post on Medium during her 2020 presidential bid as part of her “Medicare for All” plan. That plan calls for a whopping 65% top rate for the Death Tax, up from the current top rate of 40%. The same plan dramatically lowers the current Death Tax exemption level, applying a 45% tax on estates valued over $3.5 million, a massive reduction from the current exemption level of $13.6 million. This means the number of families subject to the death tax would greatly increase.
Harris’ willingness to raise taxes on families and family-owned businesses experiencing the death of a loved one demonstrates her far-Left political tendencies. Harris in her own words even credits self-described socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-V.t.) as the inspiration for her Death Tax plan.
Harris can also increase the burden of the Death Tax by allowing the 2017 Trump tax cuts to expire, something she has repeatedly threatened to do. Republicans’ 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provided Death Tax relief for many Americans by doubling the estate tax exemption, greatly reducing the number of taxpayers forced to pay the death tax and allowing more family-owned businesses, farms, and ranches to pass on from one generation to the next.
Harris has pledged to discard this Death Tax relief along with the entirety of the 2017 tax cuts if she became president, proclaiming, “On day one, we’re going to repeal that tax bill.”
If Harris takes office, her pledge to repeal TCJA will revert the estate tax exemptions to their pre-TCJA levels. This means that the exemption will halve, and many more Americans will be hit with death taxes.
The Death Tax places an undue burden on the taxpayer and their future generations.
In contrast to Harris, Republicans are focused on providing further relief from the Death Tax for American families and small businesses. President Trump has vowed to make the provisions of his 2017 tax cuts permanent while House Republicans, led by Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), have introduced the Death Tax Repeal Act to fully and permanently repeal the Death Tax. That legislation has 170 cosponsors in the House, including two Democrats.
The strong show of support from House Republicans to repeal the Death Tax entirely shows where momentum is on the issue for conservatives. For conservatives, the death tax is a moral issue and correctly recognized as a form of double taxation. A taxpayer will work their entire life while being subjected to income, payroll, and numerous other forms of taxes. They have already paid taxes on their life’s work while they were alive, and they should not have to pay further taxes from beyond the grave.
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist said, “It is a sign of the health of American society — and the weakness of envy as a political program – that a majority of Americans have supported abolishing the Death Tax over the decades…the U.S. abolished the Death Tax in 1802, 1870, and 1902.”
Harris’ plans for hiking the Death Tax that would punish hardworking family-owned businesses seeking to pass their business on to the next generation. This fundamentally contradicts the basic American principle that you have a right to pass on the hard work and success of your life to your family.
Instead, Harris sees this as an opportunity for the government to take a bigger bite from taxpayers.
Meagan Dean is a federal policy associate at Americans for Tax Reform.
Apply a death tax on abortions.
I expect it was something like: ‘because when you’re dead you can no longer be living and you can no longer do the things you do that we can tax and your things all go up to the cloud with you in the present time that we are all living in or being dead in or still in this time right now that can be taxed.’
There already is a death tax for those who choose to abort their babies, spiritually speaking. Their souls are forever blackened unless they repent.
Never met a tax they don’t just love.
I’ll bet you a dollar a Death Tax will include exemptions for FOK (Friends of Kamala).
Millionaires will escape it by using complicated trusts, or some such thing. Businesses owned by powerful members of Congress will be exemption just because.
But that poor slob who owns a small hardware store, too bad for him.
This will kill Sports Team ownership.................
To vote for this harris woman.. have you all lost your minds? Is this generation.. 2 generations.. not learned good from bad... good from evil.. She’s a woman.. is that your only reason to vote for her? Get past that one fact.. get into how your life will change if she is in charge.
First, she has no ability to run this country.. bedlam, if you like it.
Second, what she has in control will give you sleepless nights and take all you ever had or every hoped to have. Your hope would be GONE. Castro did that to Cuba.. the people thought they had a savior after batista was defeated.. but castro was worse.. the control batista had was multiplied in castro. He came back to town after the defeat and the crowds followed and cheered.. 3 days later he said he was communist and took all fire arms.. took control of all homes and businesses.. put all schools under government control. Cuba has never been the same since..those who could, fled too Florida.. swimming in dangerous waters to get to freedom again. You want this for yourself? vote for harris.. she has it all ready for you... and don’t weep after she proves who she really is and it’s too late.
Reminds me of that scene in Mutiny on the Bounty.
Lt. Fletcher Christian: “But the prisoner is dead sir!”
Captain William Bligh: “Never mind, continue with the punishment!”
The idea is to take all the money that Americans have accumulated after a lifetime of work, and give it to the new arrivals who are replacing the Americans.
Far left politicians can’t even leave the dead people alone. They have to tax them, they also have to make them come out and vote for democrats on election day. There is no “rest in peace”.
I’d be all for it if it meant getting rid of Social Security and using the money to pay off the debt for as long as it takes.
There are many who will vote for her because she has lady parts, many because she has a smattering of African DNA, and some because of both.
We knew that was coming and have been giving the kids-grandkids money before the govt takes it.
We live in a country that requires some sense of brain know how. The “woman” or “color” is not the issue and those who do make it so, should not vote. The United States needs the border closed, illegals removed, prices reasonable, schools safe, jobs for those who are looking, safe streets and cities, a capable man to reason the world from WWIII, freedom to worship, freedom to disagree, a government that works for the people, and the corruption dealt with. Women are not made to deal like the men. Women have gone crazy trying to be the one controller of all.. their ability to reason with world leaders is nil.. the fact she shows up as a woman is against the world leaders.. the fact this woman is an embarrassment and biden was an embarrassment, we NEED AN ABLE MAN in the Oval Office.
I’ve had enough foolishness and dumb.. to last me the rest of my life. I have grandchildren who have a life to live.. I want one that is sound and full of hope... what we have had lately is of no good and opens up trouble.
The democratic thing I caught a minute of...the women were all out of their minds.. and it was a Godless place with Godless people. You put that in the oval office and we will be in a war... no leader would be afraid of what we have had in charge ..and is that all we have? No, we have abilities.. those abilities are being attacked by the corruption in government and the “dumb” that has infested too many adults.
If you are going to lower the estate tax, you definitely should remove the step up in cost basis upon dying.
I know this flies against a lot of Freepers, but I’m a traditional stockbroker with a lot of elderly clients, with very low-cost positions that have soared over the years.
It is very frustrating to get them to take money off the table near what I perceive to be a market top (and I do think we have basically peaked here), only to have them say they don’t want to pay any tax, when the possibility of a big downdraft is there.
We always talk about reducing the influence of tax policy on economic decision-making (like politically motivated crap like extra credits for certain behavior), but this one seems to be off limits.
Making the cost basis transfer to the new owner after inheritance is completely fair, why give an inheritor a free ride on selling at a huge profit?
Even death is taxed all these years. A disgrace.
In A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Forum, the Zero Mostel character is told to pretend to be dead as part of a plan. “Okay, but any coins placed on my eyes I get to keep.”
Here’s what black, brown, yellow, white people need to know. Que-Mala wants to heavily tax inherited assets. What it effectively does is to erase any legacy the prior generation can leave the next one. In effect it’s STEALING BLACK PEOPLES’ HERITAGE along with all the others.
She NEEDS to do this to feed the $5T illegal immigrants giveaway plan.
45 million or so SS recipients would probably NOT AGREE.
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