Sunday, April 17, 2005
Thinking about the estate tax.
Sunday is always my most political day because I always try to watch Chris Matthews, Meet the Press, and The McLaughlin Group.
I'm all for people paying taxes. I think a lot of our country's problems could be easily solved if taxes were raised in certain areas. Social Security taxes, for example, should be raised and then the issue would disappear. Oil and fuel companies who are not making a serious attempt at new energy technologies should be taxes (or penalized, as it were).
Anyhow, I find myself in agreement with Republicans on one issue, the estate tax. The estate tax should be repealed unilaterally. The plan is already in place for it to be removed by 2010, and I think that's a good idea. The issue currently under debate is whether the current plan, which calls for all estates in 2011 to be taxed at a ridiculous rate, should be executed. Republicans say no, Democrats to a certain extent say yes.
The estate tax is essentially grave robbing, in my opinion. The argument for the estate tax is weak, even for the richest of Americans. Those in favor of the tax say that they are taxing assets which have never been taxed. In other words, if you own a stock, you don't pay taxes in it until you sell it. The same is true of many other huge assets. This being the case, people who own large amounts of stock at the time of their deaths have never paid any taxes on them. The logic follows, then, that these assets should be taxed.
I disagree with that notion. The assets do not need to be liquidated in order to be distributed from the estate, and if they are not liquidated, then they should clearly not be taxed. In addition, a significant portion of any estate large enough to qualify for the estate tax is made up of moneys or assets that *have* already been taxed, and they are then taxed for a second time. Either way, this nothing short of stealing by the government.
Winston Churchill said that anyone who is not a liberal at 25 has no heart, and anyone who is still a liberal at 40 has no brain. So I guess you should get back to me in 13 years or so.
I'm all for people paying taxes. I think a lot of our country's problems could be easily solved if taxes were raised in certain areas. Social Security taxes, for example, should be raised and then the issue would disappear. Oil and fuel companies who are not making a serious attempt at new energy technologies should be taxes (or penalized, as it were).
Anyhow, I find myself in agreement with Republicans on one issue, the estate tax. The estate tax should be repealed unilaterally. The plan is already in place for it to be removed by 2010, and I think that's a good idea. The issue currently under debate is whether the current plan, which calls for all estates in 2011 to be taxed at a ridiculous rate, should be executed. Republicans say no, Democrats to a certain extent say yes.
The estate tax is essentially grave robbing, in my opinion. The argument for the estate tax is weak, even for the richest of Americans. Those in favor of the tax say that they are taxing assets which have never been taxed. In other words, if you own a stock, you don't pay taxes in it until you sell it. The same is true of many other huge assets. This being the case, people who own large amounts of stock at the time of their deaths have never paid any taxes on them. The logic follows, then, that these assets should be taxed.
I disagree with that notion. The assets do not need to be liquidated in order to be distributed from the estate, and if they are not liquidated, then they should clearly not be taxed. In addition, a significant portion of any estate large enough to qualify for the estate tax is made up of moneys or assets that *have* already been taxed, and they are then taxed for a second time. Either way, this nothing short of stealing by the government.
Winston Churchill said that anyone who is not a liberal at 25 has no heart, and anyone who is still a liberal at 40 has no brain. So I guess you should get back to me in 13 years or so.
# posted by ChuckJerry : 4/17/2005 11:53:00 AM
