I had a friend who's daddy got him on at 18 with the chemical plant he worked at when he was 18. He made good money right from the start, and was a little arrogant for years, looking his nose down on others who were not fortuante to have a father with connections. Big conservative, Rush Limbaugh dittohead. Got laid off at 45 and now he's working at a local grocery store. Insurance is 136 dollars a week for family coverage. No company paid or company contribute retirement. Funny, he hates Limbaugh now and wants universal health care. Right wingers are good at labeling. Calling estate tax the death tax? How about the Paris Hilton tax, because if you abolish it, Paris Hilton will pay nothing on her inheritence that she worked soooooo hard for. All poor people are not lazy, chief, read my signature.
What? None of that made any sense. Rush Limbaugh made a plant worker look down on people? Whatever. Why are you so jealous of Paris Hilton that makes you want to take her inheritance? How is it any of your business? How bout you earn what you do and then try and leave something to your kids and have the government take 50% of it? Oh, and by the way.....that same money you saved was already taxed at 36% so that it can be given to more failed programs. Hey class warfare and jealousy is the game of liberals.
No, he was a Rush Limbaugh fan until he realized that some of the things he ragged on, such as universal health care, maybe wasn't such a bad idea. I used Paris Hilton as an example of the fact that she uses things provided by the goverment, (police protection, roads, air traffic safety, etc.) and if you do away with the estate tax (the death tax according to conservs.) then she pays nothing. The fact is, the first 2 million dollars of an individual inheritence is completely exempt. That amount goes up to 3.5 million in 2009. So, if you're inheriting more than 3.5 million, I don't see anything wrong with paying some taxes. Sure, it was taxed by the person who earned it paid taxes, but they're dead. The person inheriting is going to use goverment services, and I don't think they should skate. That don't make me a liberal. I'm far from it.
First the Hiltons are outspoken supporters of the inheritance tax as are the overwhelming majority of of the 1% of Americans who will end up subject to this test. (Actually 1% were subject when the exemption level was 1.5 million. Now that it is 3 million the percentage is smaller.) Second the reason this tax exists is because the overwhelming majority of the assets held by people with enough net worth to pay this tax are never before taxed capital gains. There is virtually no double taxation involved.
First of all, using the Hilton's or Bill Gates and them saying they want to be taxed is a bad argument, IMO. I don't care if Bill Gates wants to get taxed more cause he has $75 billion dollars. If a-hole Hilton wants to pay more taxes, no one is keeping him from doing that. There's a field on the tax form to pay more.....just do that but don't rally to make everyone else pay more. I'm talking about a person like my dad who has worked his tail off, paid his taxes and saved to give his children something. 50% that goes to the government of which he has already paid taxes. Liberals have made people feel jealous of people who have money.....money earned. People that have paid their dues, given to charity their whole life now when they die, it gets taxed 50%. The people inheriting the money also have to pay taxes on that money too.....don't forget that.
The federal estate tax is taxed on the transfer of an taxable estate. The first $2 million are exempt from estate taxes anyway, rising to $3.5 million in 2009. Say your dad is worth $5 million, only $1.5 million will be taxed at 45% in 2009. Total taxes owed is $675,000 which is only 13.5% of a 5 million dollar estate. If your dad is worth $3.5 million, the estate owes no taxes at all.
I don't think you know what you are talking about. The marginal rate only applies to the assets not excluded through the various deductions. An individual gets to carve out 2 million is assets of the top of their estate this year, and 3.5 million next year. Their are additional deductions for amounts left to charity and other things. Most estates that are subject to the tax end up paying at an effective rate of about 2% Estates with non excludeable assets between 1 and 2 million dollars end up paying about $25,000 in taxes on average. Again, you have to realize how few estates this tax effects. If all American estates are included less than 1% will end up owing anything. The 1% that do have taxable estates pay only on the amount of assets above the exemption level. The average estate over 20 million rarely pays an effective rate above 22%.
