I heard a good argument for the estate tax

[TheFarseer]

Repubs are fond of calling it the death tax, but you are not paying a tax because you died. Your children are paying a tax because they received income i.e. the inheritance. The problem is that we tax some income at this rate and some at this other rate. What difference does it make if it's a paycheck, from a savings account, dividends or inheritance? It's all income. Just as their is a standard deduction for normal income, there should be a special deduction on inheritance(say 2 mil?) to keep family business together and extend that to everyone even if they don't have a business just to be fair. But at the end of the day it's just income and if they want to say "that's double taxation" so is sales tax, so is property tax, so is the gas tax, so are alot of things, so shut up and pay your taxes if you think this country is worth supporting.

[Inland]

1. Even the estate tax isn't a double tax.

Most estates, large one's anyway, consist of stocks, real estate, and other capital.

As you know, the appreciation on capital isn't paid until it is sold, ie, the "capital gains tax". No sale, no tax.

When a person dies, the appreciation is, under law, wiped out. There aren't any capital gains paid. It's the best deal in taxes.

So Bill Gates starts with shares of Microsoft worth, say, practically nothing. He dies with shares worth one billion. His estate sells them for one billion. He (or his estate)pays precisely ZERO capital gains taxes on the billion.

If the estate tax applies, it is the ONLY tax on the billion. Eliminate the estate tax, and Bill's heirs get ONE BILLION DOLLARS of income that NOBODY has paid ONE PENNY of tax on.

The Estate tax is a half assed attempt to recapture the huge giveaway to capital moving down a dynastic empire.

[TheFarseer]

2. yes, exactly

did you see that this morning also? Can't even think of what I was watching now but that was another of the guy's points. I'm just so sick of rich people's money is untouchable and everything we do has to be for the good of the stock market.

[K-W]

12. The bigger point is that all money is taxed over and over again.

You pay a tax when you earn money and then when you spend it. Double taxation is a completely bogus concept.

[sam sarrha]

3. the money is unearned income.. pay the same i do if i won the Lotery 30%

[Fescue4u]

5. Lotta income is not taxed at 30%

Thats just their withholding.

Lotta income is tax as regular income (which will admittedly be a high marginal rate)

[cally]

4. If I inherit income, I don't pay taxes on some amount of it. I

think it's about $250,000 now. So I can inherit that and not pay income taxes.

What the new laws do, in increase that amount. So if my parents have wealth and are wealthy, I can maintain that wealth. So income from wealth is less taxed than income. The person who starts a busincess and succeeds is taxed more than the person who inherits.

I know the arguments. In my area, homes are averaging $500,000. So you a child moves in to take care of a parent and when they die they can't keep the home. Same thing with a family farm. The children have to sell the farm to pay the taxes. A better way to handle those problems is to exempt the first million or so from taxes of a home left to a child or a farm left to a child. It is wrong to exempt all inherited wealth from taxes.

[Sal Minella]

7. Farms are EXEMPT from Estate Taxes!!!

"Selling the farm to pay the taxes" is right wing propaganda!!!
-- farms pass to heirs without paying inheritance taxes.

[TheFarseer]

8. famers who are being honest with themselves know

who the real friend of the farmer is and it's sure as hell not the republicans. I could rant for hours on this.

[alcuno]

6. Compare it to the lotteries - either state or genetic.

One way or another you win a boatload of money, but the Republicans only want the state lottery winners to pay taxes.

What Republicans are really about is taxing "work" and not taxing everything else. Does that not turn the whole thing on its head? People who make money by sitting around and doing nothing won't pay taxes and people who go to work everyday will. They are GREEDY, SELFISH and ELITIST. "Only little people pay taxes."

[TheFarseer]

9. Completely right, republicans don't value hard work

That's only a line of BS they spout to justify cutting programs that help the poor, disabled and other down-on-their-luck types. They value wealth, connections, how loud you can talk and well you can cheat. If one guy invests in Yahoo in 1995 and sells it to a 2nd guy in 1999 the first guy is rich and the 2nd guy is cleaned out. In no way, shape or form did the first guy "work harder" I don't begrudge rich people their wealth but they shouldn't begrudge paying the lions share of the taxes when they have the lions share of the money.

[scruffy]

10. Here's what happens with estate taxes . . .

Right now, each person gets an exclusion of $1.5m from federal estate taxes, NOT INCLUDING any amount you leave your spouse. If you have done your estate planning correctly, you and your spouse can EACH leave $1.5m of assets to other people and there will be no federal estate taxes due.

Also, right now, there is a "step-up" in basis, which means that if you have stock that you paid $10,000 for . . . if it is worth $50,000 at your death, no one pays income taxes on that $40,000 increase in value. Your heirs get to use the current value (the $50,000) as its new basis, and only pay income taxes if they sell the stock and get more than $50,000 for it.

If the current estate tax is repealed, it is expected that the step-up in basis will also be repealed, which means that your heirs would have to consider your original $10,000 cost as THEIR basis . .. and if they sold the stock at any time for $50,000, they would pay taxes on the $40,000 increase.

Repealing the estate tax AND repealing the step-up in basis will hurt ordinary people much more than the estate tax in its current form.

[deacon]

11. #1 with spiriling out of control deficits you don't continue to cut taxes

#2, this tax cut benefits VERY few people.

[scruffy]

14. The CUT itself benefits very few . ..

but the repeal of the step-up in basis will affect anyone with investments, including real estate. It will also make record-keeping and accounting a real nightmare.

[funflower]

13. It's good for society

Countries that have no estate tax wind up with a useless cafe class of ultra-wealthy oligarchs. Who was it that was calling the elimination of the estate tax the "Paris Hilton tax cut"?

[SoCalDem]

15. The whiny crybabies are probably pissed that the dearly departed

had too many heirs.. Think about it.. Gramps starts a great business and it supports his entire family, sends all the kids to college.. They all grow up and have great careers, and now Gramps dies...Who of them will give up the career and run that business?? Maybe ONE person might want to, but then how do the others "get their share"?? Someone has to buy them out?? If it's a large business, who's got the cash laying around??

Usually the business, land, farm, home, whatever it is, MUST be sold so that the "division" can take place...

It's about the greed... All the heirs want their share,, they are not lamenting the loss of the business or farm.. They just do not want to pay taxes on the proceeds of the sale of the asset.

If Gramps had sold it when he was alive, HE would have had to pay capital gains taxes..no??

If a family asset continues in its original form, and employs people or produces something, I could see not taxing the heirs, but when it's dumped for the cash, they should pay taxes on the windfallo...just as if they won a lottery prize.. It IS a lottery win, in a sense.. The Gene Pool Lotto..