Yahoo! News – House Votes to End Federal Estate Taxes: WASHINGTON – The House voted Wednesday to eliminate federal estate taxes in 2010 and beyond, a repeal that Republicans hailed but many Democrats said would reward the richest families at the steep cost of deeper federal deficits.
House lawmakers voted 272-162 to prevent the tax on inherited estates from reappearing after its one-year disappearance in 2010. The bill would end the tax at a cost of roughly $290 billion over the next decade.
Ah, but the country’s doing just fine. We don’t need that $290 billion.
Interesting move for these Republicans, huh? They’re always crowing about being self-supporting, raising yourself up by your bootstraps, being a self-made man. But then they want to allow the hyper-rich to be able to pass on all of their estate to their kids who never earned anything and will never have to work a day in their lives. I guess it’s affirmative action for Paris Hilton. Or welfare. I can’t decide which.
Then there’s the framing of the issue. First it was the “Inheritance Tax”. Most people are for that; you should have to pay a tax on a free multimillion dollar gift that you get. Besides, most people don’t get an inheritance. Then it was “Estate Tax”. Most people are for that, too, but a few could be concerned that someday, maybe if they’re lucky, they might have an estate. But Bush and the Neo-Cons rechristened it…
“The death tax results in the double taxation of many family assets while hurting the source of most new jobs in this country — America’s small business and farms.”
The “Death Tax”! Ooh, scary! Death and Taxes, the two things we cannot avoid and the two things we hate, combined! And death is going to happen to us. Gosh, it must be a bad thing!
Of course, Bush is lying to you. The Estate Tax is not “Double Taxation”. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Proponents of estate tax repeal claim the estate tax is unfair because the assets in an estate already have been taxed once as income under the income tax. Therefore, they argue, the value of the estate should not be taxed again. The premise on which this claim is based, however, is not accurate. A significant portion of the value of all estates — and a majority of the value of the largest estates — have never been subject to taxation as income [because most of it is income from investments, interest, and markets, not income taxed from work like you and me, and usually sheltered from tax through complicated financial schemes]. In our overall tax system, the estate tax completes the income tax; it taxes income that otherwise would avoid taxation entirely.
Or in other words, it is the last and only chance to get tax cheating rich bastards to pay their fair share! Besides, how can it be “double taxation”? We tax rich dude’s income as he makes it. He dies. We cannot tax him. But we can tax rich dude’s kid when he receives a free gift of an inheritance. We’re taxing two different situations for two separate people!
Oh, and the Estate Tax is not hurting small business and farms (as if Bush gives a shit about small businesses and farms!) According to the Yahoo! News article quoted earlier:
Most estates already are exempt from federal taxes. The Internal Revenue Service said just over 2 percent of people who died in 2001 left estates subject to taxation.
… This year, estates worth up to $1.5 million for an individual or $3 million for a couple owe no tax. The top tax rate stands at 47 percent. Just before its complete repeal, in 2009, the exemption increases to $3.5 million for an individual or $7 million for a couple. The tax rate falls to 45 percent.
So, by 2009 a married couple with $7,000,000 could end up bequeathing a total of $3,850,000 after taxes to their offspring. Awww, poor over-taxed rich kids!
But beyond all that, the Estate Tax is fair! It levels the playing field. It helps to stem the tide of the inexorable rise of hyper-rich and powerful families. It says that you rich bastards can’t take it all with you. See, you couldn’t have become a rich bastard without the infrastructure provided by American taxpayers. The roads, the bridges, and the currency with which you carried on your capitalism require tax money for support. The workers, their rights, their healthcare, their Social Security, their safety are all provided by this government and require tax money for support. The cops, the courts, and the military that protects your company and your investments all require tax money for support. So it is ultimately fair that when you win big at the crap table of capitalism that the house gets its vig. It is ultimately fair that a large proportion of your riches go into a system that supports other people’s chances of attaining your level of success, and not just to your already spoiled and well-off children.
