Why doesn't anyone ever say this about the Estate Tax?

[TheFarseer]

Critics of the Estate Tax say it takes away everything you've ever worked for your whole life. First of all, that's not true, but let's set that aside for now. But here's what I want to know: Why have I never heard a word from these people about doctors, hospitals, nursing homes taking away everything people have worked for their whole lives in their last months when they are sick and dying? Yeah, no answer. That's what I thought.

[RB TexLa]

1. If a hospital, nursing home, doctor or estate tax takes too much from

in the last months before you die, it's your fault for having inadequate estate planning.

[hedgehog]

11. Is that a serious post or sarcastic one?

I've seen the cost of Long Term Care insurance. Some people can afford it, others can't. Once again, what looks like a reasonable system penalizes the poor and middle class. Make $150,000 a year and an anuual premium of $1500 doesn't llok bad. Now try it when your take-home is $40,000 or $25,000.

[sam sarrha]

13. the hospitals and care homes are Master Thieves, they tried to get my

grandfather to sign over the 'Farm' in case the family couldn't pay his bills, 'You dont want them to go into debt and have to pay everything for you do you...'??

his bills were paid in total by the insurance.. i am sure they own a realestate company that would sell it to themselves for 10% the value and give the familly a bill anyway

[papau]

2. estate tax is in lieu of capital gains tax on asset ownership transfer &

is at 45% because it is the one time our tax code taxes investment gains at the same tax rate as for wages.

Still estate planning reduces that 45% to an effective 15% at best.

The key to not losing assets to health costs is to give it away much earlier - although charity health care may make date of death also a bit earlier.

[sam sarrha]

3. not "End the Estate Tax" bill.... its the Paris Hilton Collage fund Bill

[sam sarrha]

4. estate tax only effects the .01% richest.. only a few hundred families

[papau]

6. true - IRS data shows about a 100 per year will pay anything in 09 -n/t

n/t

[Yupster]

7. Well it effected me when my aunt died

I had no idea I was in the top .01 % of anything. I'll go tell my mother, father, brother, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, my aunt's church, the animal rescue shelter, the World Wildlife Fund, the dog race adoption center and about twenty other charities that they are all in the top .01 % too.

I bet they'll all be as astounded as I was to find out about my great wealth. I don't feel like a millionaire, but if Sam says I am, then I must be one. He should know after all.

On edit I should say that when my aunt died the estate tax exclusion was $ 600,000. If she died today we all wouldn't have been effected. Of course if we rollback all of Bush's tax cuts the limit will go back down to $ 600,000 again.

[hedgehog]

10. Please explain more.

Are you saying that bequests to charity come after the estate tax is taken? You are also indicating a tax rate of 100% over the exclusion. I doubt that was the case.

[sam sarrha]

12. Considering the vast amount, didnt you have a lawyer.? it might depend on

where the money was.. if you didnt have a lawyer.. that wasnt wise.

[Yupster]

15. Of course we had a lawyer

Why would you think we wouldn't have had one? Without a lawyer and an accountant we would have had no earthly idea how much to send to the federal and state governments.

What my aunt did not have though was an estate planning lawyer before she died.

None of us had any idea she had over $ 1 million in assets. She was just a hard working middle-class woman who never married and was a good saver.

[Yupster]

14. I don't understand the tax rate of 100 % part

To what in my post are you referring?

I don't know what the tax rate was. It was federal and New York State Estate tax. The amount was about $ 180,000. We all got lesser amounts because the government took $ 180,000.

Why do people only say it effects the top .1 % when I know that's not true because it effected me and I'm not any top percent of anything.

To be fair the rate was lower back then. My aunt wouldn't be effected if she had died today.

[pitohui]

5. because the estate tax is irrelevant in that situation

clearly if your entire life savings is taken by the doctors and the greedy nursing homes, you have no estate, and any debate abt the estate is beside the point

i support a high estate tax, otherwise, the children of the poor and the middle class could never possibly be on an even footing for opportunity with the wealthy, well, they won't ever be anyway, because people are allowed to take too much money that they didn't work for, they just had to be born to the right parents to get

so society becomes more and more unfair over time if there is not a high estate tax

greedy nursing homes looting middle class people's entire life savings is an important issue but it is not clearly related to the estate tax in my view

[hedgehog]

8. It's not the nursing homes doing the looting, it's Republicans

Medicare and Medicaid will not pick up the cost of nursing home care until the patient is reduced to poverty level. I'm not even certain how much a surviving spouse is allowed to retain. The irony is that it only takes a few months to run through a life-times's assets, so the government ends up paying for the remaining bill any ways.It's a life tax. Have a stroke and die at once, your family gets to keep the house. Have a stroke and spend time in a nursing home, you lose the house.

[Yupster]

16. Buy long term care insurance

while you're still in your 50's before it starts getting expensive.

[Johonny]

9. How come

I can mix an apple and an orange and not get a pear. Yeah, no answer. That's what I thought.