This may not seem important for middle-class people, but bear in mind that with inflation, everyone will eventually be hit by this "death tax."
So, within a few years, inflation will eat away at that exemption level, and 'ordinary' people will be hit hard by the Obama Estate Tax.
I think it should be abolished, but the truth is, at this point in time, many people who would have been hit by it are less likely to be affected by it now.
Property values have decreased, portfolios have plunged...if inflation hits, of course, it will affect more people, but in the next year, at least, many who would have been affected by it, won’t be because of the present economic situation.
This tax is plain and simply immoral. My grandmother, who had nothing most of her 88 year life, said that. That money has been taxed how many times over?
So the more successful you are, the more you are punished.
I have never understood the reasoning for this tax.
The wealth of people was accumulated post taxes. They or their parents have already paid taxes on the wealth. Now the feds think they are due 45% of the wealth in the upper brackets.
That is pure and simple thievery. They don’t deserve one cent on those funds, or material wealth.
There are more lazy poor than hard working rich. The poor hire Rats to steal for them.
The poor don’t support themselves or America.
Did Caroline Kennedy pay a 45% estate tax?
enquiring minds want to know
Gee, this seems to keep nagging at me, but there's something about the estate tax that just isn't right.
. . . . . . . . . I wonder what that could be?? . . . . . . . . . Hmmmmm . . . . . . maybe double taxation, which is specifically against the law??
Nah, couldn't be anything like that!!!
In all seriousness, I know that the estate tax didn't start with Obama, it's been with us for a long time. The estate tax is one more example of how irrevocably broken our government is. Why should ANYONE have to be taxed again on items remaining in a deceasd's estate that taxes have already been paid???
It was once said about Mario Cuomo that he never met a program that he didn’t like...
I think it will be prescient and fair to guess that the re-distributionist Socialist who is to be inaugurated on January 20th will seldom meet a tax he does not like.
Wouldn’t setting up some sort of *trust* enable one to avoid estate taxes?
The big problem is, we have allowed the political class to imagine that our money is really their money. Until we change that, we will continue to finance every scheme they can come up with.
“Obama Plans to Keep Estate Tax”
What???? But, but, what about “change?”
I won't. Poor and all that.
Yep, the key term is that it would fix the value PERMANENTLY. But on the bright side, 3.5 million is a heck of a lot better than the previous $600,000. We can look to eliminate it permanently in the future.
The Law of Unintended Consequences will have fatal results for many successful people in 2010. Let’s say you’re sick and old and don’t have much time to live. The logical thing to do is commit suicide before 2011 in order to preserve your estate for your beneficiaries. On the flip side, many beneficiaries will have a big incentive to murder their benefactors.
Funeral homes might be a good investment next year.