Make a case for the Estate Tax

[bluffmanxx]

Just wondering if any of our hiding progressive members can give a rational reason why the death tax is anything but theft by our government.

The money has already been taxed, why should we punish those who wish to save and pass their fortune's on to their surviving family members??

I really can't imagine any good reason to tax what is simply a transfer of funds from one individual to another. The logic is so far beyond fairness, it's simply the government taking what it wants to take for no good reason.

Simply saying that it's more than you need and taking it to further bloat government spending is not going to cut it...

[DDT]

I think there are ways around it...for the last 6 years my sisters and I have owned our parents property in case something happens the government can't come in and take it out from under them.

[spaceboy761]

The estate tax isn't a tax on the rich. It's a tax on the people who are too dumb to avoid the estate tax. As long as were $1.3T in debt, there should be any tax relief at all. Once our country is back in the black, lower the national tax rate to 0% for all I care.

[wubders]

the death tax IS theft by our Gov't.......at least it will not be going back to 1990 levels next year now that it passed.

But alot of state have separated their portion from the federal with the old lower exemption levels.

Yes there has always been family gifting, but many tax catches with it, also.....And the 2032 family business provisions have allowed more to pass untaxed, but the business has a gov't lean on it for like 7 years, so can't be sold and has to be managed by a family member.

[spaceboy761]

Giving something back that you never had the right to borrow isn't theft.

[skyguy2007]

Giving something back that you never had the right to borrow isn't theft.

So it would be called......??

[spaceboy761]

It would be called, "You like your Medicare?, you like your Social Security?, you like your national security?... sweet. Try paying the appropriate tax level to support it instead of borrowing the money from your kids."

[bluffmanxx]

seriously greg, the federal government has dedicated revenue streams for social security and medicare, they have jacked up those tax rates and raided the reserves to fund endlessly expanding government, and you think it's ok to take money that has been taxed and saved to support even higher levels of unsustainable spending. brilliant. yes we are in a hole, but i say no new revenue for the government until they actually produce budgets that make sense. budgets that don't consider a decrease in their annual increase a revenue cut. budgets that don't include programs that produce negative results. it's flat out immoral that people making $50-60 K support government employees doing the same work with wage and benefit packages double that. we must stop feeding the beast because it is about to devour all of us.

[spaceboy761]

The only way to get the budgets anywhere within reason is to slash the hell out of Medicare, SS, and defense since they encompass about 85% of spending. Looksie:

http://www.federalbudget.com/

Even if the other 15% is completely eliminated (which is completely infeasible), we would still be in deficit by a long shot. So that leaves two choices... make cuts to the sacred cows that neither party wants to cut because it's political suicide, or raise taxes. Raising taxes is the most plausible despite everybody's moral objections. I have no moral objections.

[bluffmanxx]

no, that's not the only way. read Paul Ryan's roadmap. yes it makes changes to entitlements, but nothing drastic in the short term. the plan takes decades to balance the budget, but i think we both agree that a quick fix (huge cuts or huge tax increases) will have overwhelming negative effects on the economy and the lives of millions of people.

maybe it's wishful thinking that our government will have the long term willpower and resolve to follow the roadmap or something similar, but IMO Ryan's approach is the only way to fix the problem. correct the structural problems with the budget, entitlements & tax policy and over time the ship will right itself.

you know i think our wild mish mash of taxes and fees is a train wreck that is inefficient, i'd still like to see something like the fair tax used instead. bottom line - we need to overhaul how our government collects and redistributes money.