Posted on 10/24/2017 4:26:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
My father built a small business from scratch with years of sweat equity and many weeks and months away from home. He employed about 100 people, and by the end of his working years, the business was highly successful. He became a millionaire. He lived the American dream. He sold a product that people wanted, provided a solid income for many families and gave lots of money to our church and numerous other charities. And every year he paid his taxes. Over the course of his lifetime, he paid millions of dollars in income taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes, gas taxes and so on. He died two years ago at age 91.
Should people like my father have to surrender up to 50 percent of their life savings to the government upon death? Do we want to live in a country where half a family business, farm or ranch gets handed over to the IRS when the owner dies?
The GOP tax plan proposes to kill the death tax. Why? Because estate taxes put the entire American concept of the "family business" at risk.
I have met many people who literally sold the farm to pay the taxes. This hurts the economy. It incentivizes business owners to sell their companies and live lavishly during the retirement years so there is little left at their death for the government to snatch. Dying broke beats the taxman but is terrible for future generations who could keep building the business and hiring more workers.
Why would anyone who is 70 or 80 years old and a multimillionaire continue saving, re-investing to grow a family business or working if they can't turn their assets over to their kids or grandkids?
It would be one thing if the death tax actually raised real money for the government. But it doesn't. In 2014, the estate tax collected -- hold on to your hats -- roughly $19 billion, about 0.6 percent of all federal revenues.
Liberals counter that only a tiny percentage of Americans pay the tax. But a tax that collects $19 billion and costs the economy multiple times that amount of money in lost investment and complicated estate tax-planning schemes invented by estate-tax attorneys and accountants is a dumb tax.
George Soros put $18 billion, tax-free, into his foundation, which is run by his family and friends. Soros, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have all hidden their money in such foundations and won't pay a penny of the estate tax. You don't get rich by being stupid.
The death tax doesn't take money from billionaires; they have legions of tax and estate planners to find ways of getting around it. No, this tax is paid by self-made men, such as my father, who built this country. Where's the fairness in that?
Back in the day the tax was generally the same as the tithe. 50% is a bit different than 10%. At one time the top tax rate in Great Britain was 95%. Such a level of taxation can only happen in an industrialized society. Much more than 10% in an agrarian society will destroy it, which is why it is a historical norm. It's not that the kings of old were less rapacious than those of today. They simply couldn't tax at much higher rates and have their society continue.
Personally, I think a 50% tax is immoral in every way imaginable, and I doubt it would be something that He would condone.
The dems will be crowing “tax cuts for the rich” no matter what changes are made. Screwem.
THAT, or something very close, should be a series of Trump tweets.
As a native Vuginyan, I find Woodrow Wilson one of the Commonwealth’s more egregious contributions to national politics. This is especially so considering his triple-header involvement with the direct income tax component of the 16th Amendment, the 17th Amendment and the Federal Reserve Act. And lets not forget WWI nor the near 24-month time lag between U.S. deaths aboard RMS Lusitania and our entry into hostilities. Additionally, his rulings against continued service of Blacks in government and the military, and the resulting animosity, arguably set true assimilation in the U.S. back several generations.
Anyway, listening to all hands bemoaning their opponents tax plan, I’m reminded of the Three Bears wanting their oatmeal to be “just right”. In my mind the only “just right” is a flat tax. “Equal Justice Under Law” and all that. Set a uniform rate whatever it may be. If too high, tax PAYERS voice will be acknowledged. In the equality of the grocery checkout line, we all pay the same price for a given item, and for that matter, the sales tax levied by local/state politicians. It occurs to me that our representatives more represent their views or that of a third-party more than any consensus of their constituency. Our revenue system existed for about 125-years before the 16th Amendment was lobbied for and otherwise pushed to ratification. Other than appeasing “other” interests, what good has been achieved by the 16th Amendment, the 17th Amendment and the Federal Reserve Act?
To my knowledge, government does not respectfully acknowledge the economic ripple that any level of business makes to the economy. Whether it’s employees paying income tax, generating sales tax on products created or creating complimentary businesses that supply raw materials, transport products to market or individuals spending their income on whatever they require or desire. Some might say the progression is the miracle of capitalism. To me it’s just a miracle.
Have you gotten the memo, Mike Rounds? Stand in the way of death tax repeal and you will be a one term wonder.
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