Steinbrenner’s Timely Exit

Palisades Hudson Financial Group LLC ^ | July 14, 2010 | Larry M. Elkin

[TwoOverhill]

Whether you admired George Steinbrenner or loathed him (his kind treatment of troubled souls like Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden won me over in his later years), say this for the man: He had impeccable timing. When Steinbrenner led a group of partners that bought the New York Yankees in 1973 for $10 million, the team was down on its luck and owned by a corporate parent, CBS, that had no idea what to do about it.

When he died yesterday at age 80, he had built his own network, YES, into the cornerstone of a personal fortune estimated at $1.1 billion. The Yankee franchise is reportedly worth another $1.6 billion, but most of that is supposedly pledged as collateral for loans that financed the team’s new stadium. In any case, we should treat all of these values as little more than guesswork, since no outsider can measure the current value of the privately held Yankee empire, nor are we privy to the details of the Steinbrenner family business arrangements.

We do know this: by dying in 2010, a year in which the United States has no estate tax, Steinbrenner may have saved his family a $600 million liability to the U.S. Treasury. Or maybe not.

[MissyMack66]

That very thought crossed my mind as well. A man of his stature could have been kept alive for another 5 years.
They made a good move, keeping his legacy in the family.

[MarineBrat]

"Ultimately, the estate tax is not the “death tax” that its political opponents like to claim it is. George Steinbrenner is dead, and he will neither know nor care what tax his estate ultimately generates. The estate tax is a thrift tax, a success tax, a legacy tax. It is a tax imposed solely on those who would enjoy, sustain or build upon the achievements of an earlier generation."

I call BS. To say that someone will not "care" what happens to their money after they die is a steaming pantload. I'm taxed when I earn money, so I've already paid my due. To steal if from my family after I die is outright theft. Pure evil!

[presently no screen name]

BUMP!!

What kind of @$$ would think GS wouldn’t care about his family being robbed of what is rightfully his/theirs.

Robbers wear suits and ties and given the (wrong/evil) authority to rob from those that have.

[Oldpuppymax]

Not to worry. Hussein will no doubt make the tax retroactive!!!

[YankeeMagic]

Looks like you were right..

Because of a loophole for 2010, the Steinbrenner family stands to save around $500 million in taxes after the death George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees. However, a group of senators are proposing legislation that, if passed, would mean the Steinbrenner family would be forced to pay back taxes.

“It would be retroactive and that is something the Supreme Court has held up in previous years,” said Michael Briggs, the communications director for Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Sen. Sanders is one of the sponsors of the Responsible Estate Tax Act, which in part seeks to close the anomaly of the 2010 estate tax law. If Steinbrenner had died in 2009 or 2011, his family would have been subject to a more than a 50 percent federal tax on their inheritance. Steinbrenner’s worth has been estimated by Forbes at $1.15 billion.
http://itsaboutthemoney.net/archives/2010/07/14/steinbrenners-not-going-anywhere/

[bootless]

I heard about the Sanders theft ^H^H^H^H^H proposal last night, and almost blew an artery. How does that avoid being unconstitutional, specifically the “ex post facto” section?

Vultures.