BUFFETT ON ESTATE TAX

[clarence swinney]

WARREN BUFFETT ON ESTATE TAX
In testimony before Congress he said:
“The Estate Tax was established in 1916 during the Gilded Age to put a brake on
anti-democratic concentrations of wealth and power. Dynastic wealth,
the enemy of meritocracy, is on the rise. Equality of opportunity has been on the decline.
A progressive and meaningful state tax is needed to curb the movement of a democracy toward plutocracy. The use of the phrase “death tax” was intellectually dishonest and clever.
Orwellian and dead wrong.
The tax cuts of the last decade have enabled the super rich, including myself, to get richer.
Tax-law changes have benefited he super rich group, including me in a huge way.
During that time the average American went exactly nowhere on the economic scale.
He's been on a treadmill while the super rich have been on a spaceship.
Only 12,000 households in the U.S. Pay the tax and they are exclusively multimillionaires and billionaires. Leona Helmsley's dog, Trouble, is reportedly inheriting 12 million.
Without an estate tax Trouble could instead receive 22 million.
Keep the estate tax and it's 24 billion. There are 23 million households in the United States
with $20,000 or less of income. Let's give those 23 million households a $1000 annual credit. The cost would be less than getting rid of the tax on less than 12,000 estates.”
clarnece swinney olduglymeanhonest

[NYC_SKP]

1. "Warren Buffett to Congress: Keep Taxing the Mega-Rich"

Warren Buffett to Congress: Keep Taxing the Mega-Rich

Calls "death tax" rhetoric "intellectually dishonest" and "clever, Orwellian and dead wrong."

November 19, 2007 |

Billionaire Warren Buffett testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday in defense of the federal estate tax, the nation's only tax on inherited wealth.

Buffett invoked the historical roots of the estate tax, established in 1916 during the Gilded Age to put a brake on anti-democratic concentrations of wealth and power. "Dynastic wealth, the enemy of meritocracy, is on the rise," Buffett told the panel. "Equality of opportunity has been on the decline. A progressive and meaningful estate tax is needed to curb the movement of a democracy toward plutocracy."

As a result of the 2001 Bush tax cut, the federal estate tax is being phased out and in 2010 will be completely repealed for one year. But the entire tax bill sunsets in 2011, and unless Congress takes action, the estate tax will return. The votes no longer exist for "permanent repeal," so a compromise lies ahead.

Wealthy individuals and tax cutters have always disliked the estate tax, which they labeled the "death tax." In the mid-1990s, a group of superrich families began funding organizing efforts to abolish the tax, culminating with the passage of the 2001 legislation.

More at the link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/68145/

:patriot:

[SmileyRose]

2. Sounds like jibberish.

do you have a link? I'm having a hard time believing Buffett's speech before Congress would sound that disjointed.

[Brickbat]

3. Well, if he'd stop buying companies and shutting them down, that would help, too.

I agree with his tax ideas, but he's not a saint.

[stray cat]

6. Are these productive companies that would profit without someone buying them?

or ones that have failed anyway and need to be shut down? I'm not in favor of tax payer welfare for companies just to keep them operational and losing money...

[Brickbat]

7. I was thinking specifically of companies he's bought and then moved the manufacturing overseas, not

closing. I typed too fast.

[reformist2]

4. I'm thankful he speaks out like this in defense of progressive taxation.

He won't be around forever. When he dies, how many other billionaires will there be who say the things he does?

[MikeNY]

5. Bill Gates and thats about it n/t

[phasma ex machina]

11. Buffett and Gates both put most of their billions into charitable tax free foundations

(virtual ownership) that enable both to continue controlling vast wealth then pass it down tax free to their beneficiaries.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

8. How is the use of the phrase "Death Tax" wrong?

The phrase, despite any associated psychological negative connotations, is accurate.
You die and your remaining wealth is taxed before it can be inherited.
Who cares what it's called? Does a name really change the nature of the beast?

[Viking12]

9. "death tax" is wildly inaccurate.

"Death tax" implies that everyone pays tax upon their death. Only a teeny-tiny fraction of people are subject to the estate tax. The estate tax is really an inheritance tax, paid upon the receipt of millions of dollars.

[eallen]

12. Dead people don't pay taxes. Heirs pay taxes.

The right very much wants to make this about the deceased. That generates sympathy, and allows the false argument that the deceased already has paid tax on this income.

It isn't about the deceased. The deceased is beyond the reach of any tax. (Unless you credence the rumors about a coin for Charon.)

Heirs pay tax. Labeling it an inheritance tax or heir tax accurately puts the focus on the fact that someone else is receiving income.

:hippie:

[gristy]

13. Well put

:thumbsup:

[ncteechur]

10. I like Warren Buffett. I do not begrudge him making his billions--everybody should be so fortunate

and business. He also acknowledges that he and other rich individuals need to pay up. He has never said otherwise that I'm aware.