House OKs permanent end of estate tax

Mercury News ^ | 6/18/03 | Mary Dalrymple - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - The House voted Wednesday to permanently end taxes on inherited estates, rejecting a Democratic effort to retain the tax for the country's wealthiest families.

"What we're talking about here is fairness to families," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "They ought to have the comfort and relief to pass that business on to the next generation, to their children and to their grandchildren."

[NormsRevenge]

What's Up with this bunch of overachievers, anyway!! ;-)

[fightinJAG]

hahahahahaaaa Overachievers, indeed!

Pretty kewl. We shall see.

[tet68]

but I believe that the idea of an inherited upper-class is un-American," he said.

O lord no, wouldn't want to pass that on to the Chilren,
class and all that!
Not when we're teaching them to be good government drones.

Repeal the estate tax now, for good!

[IYAS9YAS]

Seth Goldman, president of Honest Tea in Bethesda, Md., said eliminating the estate tax will create "an entitled class" and suppress entrepreneurship. "There are those who claim that an estate tax is un-American, but I believe that the idea of an inherited upper-class is un-American," he said.

If I made the money, why shouldn't I be able to do with it as I please when I die? Seth Goldman is a moron.

[prairiebreeze]

It won't happen in the Senate I'm afraid....

Prairie

[wjcsux]

"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."
The RAT Creed as stated by Karl Marx.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Can I get back the $400,000 we paid them in the 90's?

[SauronOfMordor]

The real support for the estate tax comes from the "old money" wealthy who already have their trusts set up, like the Fords and the Rockefellers

Without an estate tax, the upper-middle-class could pass on to their kids enough capital to take advantage of investment opportunities that only the very wealthy have the ability to take advantage of. The already-wealthy don't want any competition for those investment opportunities.

That's why you find so many "old money" rich folks (like the Kennedys) being Dems

[tet68]

I mean reallly the 1.5 percent of the highest paying taxpayers, well, it's not like they were really citizens like you and me.

/sarcasm

Exploiters, kulaks, bourzwazee! Class warfare for the classless. No inheritance for chilren! Vote democrat!

/sarcasm

Bye the bye, you don't see Teddy K. giving any of it back, do you?

[Cordova Belle]

Glory to God!

We're poor as church mice, but I've always thought the death tax--no matter HOW rich a person is--is ridiculous.

This is why capitalism works: so that those who achieve can accumulate wealth to give to their children and grandchildren. This is what it's all about.

[tet68]

Ya know, if this DOESN'T pass the Senate, the American
People should burn the place down because they sure aren't working for us.

I am really tired of the RAT deadlock/sleeperhold on the senate, it's time the pubbys got some nads.

[supercat]

Seth Goldman, president of Honest Tea in Bethesda, Md., said eliminating the estate tax will create "an entitled class" and suppress entrepreneurship.

How much money is tied up in "charitable foundations" explicitly for the purpose of tax avoidance? How does this encourage entrepreneurship?

[rollin]

Many Middle Western Farmers have estates because of their land valuations in excess of the $1 million exemption. The estate tax has been a major reason why corporations have moved into the agriculture business.

For example, I am aware of one family that refused to sell its land to pay the estate tax. But the government allowed them 15 years to pay the estate tax which was assessed. The only problem was that the gross income (not net income) of the land for 17 years was required to pay the estate tax.

That land has remained in the same family for over 150 years and four generations have paid estate tax on it. In fact, the estate tax since 1950 exceeds the property taxes which have been paid on the land.

It is way past time for the estate tax to go. Of course, a lot of lawyers will find their trust business being diminished. Such a loss we can stand.

[SUSSA]

Maybe they decided to start acting like Republicans. Let's hope so.

This looks like Tom DeLay's work. Thank God for Mr. DeLay

[Jason_b]

Not only that there is some value in a business that is set up with people able and willing to run it.

The inheritance tax forces the dissolution of the business, scatters the skilled and knowledgable people far and wide who used to run it, who may or may not bother to form a new business later on at great expense and personal sacrifice.

It would be more wise for the STATE not to tax inheritance, allow the descendants to inherit it and continue operating it, and then sales taxes would continue to flow to the STATE without interruption. This assuming the business generates sales and sales taxes, you get my point.

In other words, the intact business is more valuable to the state over time than the liquidation proceeds are over the short term. People who eat seed corn should not run the government.

[tubebender]

PING...

[SVTCobra03]

If this becomes law is the estate tax abolished in 2010 or immediately? And I would like to see the state of Oklahoma abolish its estate tax.

[GodBlesBush]

The Pubies screwed me again. Jeez why not take the abolisment of the estate tax for the 99% the Dems were offering. I'm mailing back that republican fund raiser letter with a neit. They also resurrected the Federal case against Big Tabocco. What good are they?

[MinorityRepublican]

No compromise with the Hammer.

[Impy]

"The Pubies screwed me again"

How so?