ESTATE TAX A.K.A. DEATH TAX

By • on November 30, 2009

You work all your life to accumulate wealth. You pay taxes on that wealth – Property Taxes, State & Federal Income Taxes, Sales Taxes, Fees (fees are just taxes) and much more. Chances are that over 50% of the wealth you will generate throughout your lifetime of work goes to the government.

Then you die.

And guess what? The wealth you leave behind will be taxed if your estate is worth one million dollars or greater. The Government calls it Estate Taxes the rest of us call it Death Taxes.

Death and Taxes

If you have a dark sense of humor read the following excuses the Progressive Liberals (read as; Socialists) use to justify the Death Tax;

It only effects large estates (one million dollars is not a large estate)
If we did not have the Death Tax many billions in tax revenue would be lost every year by the Federal Government (and this should bother us because?)
That it really isn’t a tax on wealth but a transfer tax (they have got to be kidding)
The Death Tax prevents the creation of a class of the idle rich (but wait, we already have a class of idle rich and it is full of liberals)
AND, my personal favorite; the tax prevents a disincentive to work for those who inherit
In other words Wealthy Socialists, and there are plenty of them in the House and Senate, don’t want YOU to become wealthy through accumulated wealth and they want to keep YOUR HEIRS working so they will be productive and help the Wealthy Socialists get wealthier and more powerful. They would like you to think these taxes effect only the very wealthy, but the “idle rich class” of liberals sheltered their fortunes long ago and the very rich have all manner of accountants and lawyers to protect them. The truth is they pay very little in taxes.

Socialist societies depend upon three classes of people: The Idle Poor Socialists, The Working Serfs and The Idle Rich Socialists. The Idle Rich Socialists make sure that the Idle Poor Socialists get hand-outs from them using YOUR MONEY, even after you die. Socialism is really nothing more than an advanced form of Feudalism, once a taxpayer understands that they know that they are just another Serf working for the Idle Rich Socialists.

And just to make sure they get their money there is also a Gift Tax and a U.S. Generational-Skipping Transfer Tax which is a tax on gifts and trust transfers to for instance, your grandchildren or an unrelated person who is more than thirty seven and a half years younger than you – this tax is imposed if the gift or estate tax is somehow avoided through the transfer process.

Plus Estate Taxes are calculated on the entire estate, not the part each individual inherits. So if the estate is worth three million dollars and six people inherit $500,000 each, guess what? You still pay the tax. If it were truly a transfer tax, and not a tax on the deceased as the liberals claim, then to my mind the part of the estate each person inherits would be addressed separately.

Oh, and let’s not forget the State Inheritance and/or Estate Taxes. Many states have this tax (Kentucky has both an inheritance and estate tax) and if you are unfortunate enough to live in a state that does, you get to pay even more in death taxes.

Let’s face it one million dollars does not qualify you as a member of the “idle rich.”One million dollars used to be a lot of money, but many people are now worth one million dollars or more on paper. (The one million dollar threshold has never been adjusted for inflation.)

For instance, most businesses in the United States are small businesses and many are worth well over one million dollars. But if you leave that business to your heirs chances are they will have to pay taxes on it and they may have to sell the business in order to do so because there may not be enough cash on hand to cover the taxes which are a whopping 55%.

And apparently the I.R.S. thinks Estate Taxes are profitable for the government. According to Wikipedia;

“Estate tax lawyers are the most productive tax law enforcement personnel at the I.R.S., according to Brown. For each hour they work, they find an average of $2,200 of taxes that people owe the government.” (Quote source; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estate_tax_in_the_United_States)

Now here is the kicker and no one is talking about it because, let’s face it, we have been a bit pre-occupied with TARP, healthcare, Cap & Trade, and a whole host of other Socialist agenda items lately;

“Congress has passed tax laws that have made numerous, temporary changes to both the estate tax rate and the exemption amount. Since 2002, the top rate has decreased incrementally from 50%, and the exemption amount has increased incrementally from $1 million. In 2009 the rate is 45% and the exemption amount is $3.5 million. On January 1, 2010 a “one year repeal” of the tax is scheduled to be effectuated by a temporary, one-year-only rate of 0%, but on January 1, 2011 the estate tax is scheduled to return at a top rate of 55% and the exemption amount is scheduled to drop back down to $1.0 million.” (Source; Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estate_tax_in_the_United_States )

So folks there was this small window of opportunity and it ends in 2010 (HISTORICAL REMINDER; This Estate Tax window of opportunity as well as the income tax cuts that also will be ending was provided to us by the Republicans in Congress before they lost the majority) But let’s face it, we aren’t all going to die in 2010 so this one year exemption doesn’t do us much good.

What can we do?

Well, we could ask a conservative GOP House member to introduce an elimination of the tax altogether, but chances of it passing in the Pelosi House of Progressives is probably nil.

We could include the elimination of the Death Tax as an issue item that we seek a position statement on from our elected representatives during the 2010 elections. Then if we get a like-minded majority in the House, we could help draft legislation for its elimination.

If that’s not possible, we could seek a much higher tax threshold on the tax, let’s say $20 million and exempt all inherited small businesses, no matter their value from the tax.

If you have any suggestions on this issue, please share your thoughts with us. We might just be able to come up with a workable answer.

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    Comments

    By Seth on November 30th, 2009 at 5:47 pm

    I have another suggestion for what we can do. Get involved. Tell Congress we’ve had enough.

    By Admin on November 30th, 2009 at 8:36 pm

    Great suggestion! How do you think we can tell them in a way that they Listen and Act Upon what they hear?

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