RebKell's Junkie Boards

[jammerbirdi]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Estate-Tax.html?hp&ex=1113451200&en=1ba9492e1cbcc863&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Keegan]

That's funny - I thought governments would be putting MORE death taxes in place with the aging population of the first world.

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[pilight]

There's no such thing as permanent in government. It's only permanent until they vote on it again...

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[jammerbirdi]

[buckfifty98]

I've always been against this tax regardless of who or how rich a person is. What is it's purpose? Why should such a tax exist? Just because someone has managed to be successful in life is no reason to penalize their children. And after a lifetime of paying taxes (well, unless they had good attorneys) they can't die without giving more money to the government. It was a stupid tax to start with.

I know personally many, many family farms that have been effected by this sort of tax in the past. The old farmers still end up paying huge taxes because the land they have gradually bought over a long period of years gets taxed as capital gains if they sell any of it or try to pass it to their children.

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The contrary may also be shown.

[pilight]

[sbjules]

[jammerbirdi]

buck this isn't about providing for your kids after you're gone. it's not even about maintaining class dynasties because the taxes paid on the inheritence will absolutely not sink anyone's fortune.

family farms and other business interests should be exempt as being ongoing concerns. if they haven't been all along then they should have been. that would be truly crazy if a family farm or restaurant had to be sold or cease operating just because of a death triggered a tax liability.

Buck, they leave these onerous provisions IN these laws precisely so someone can stand up and say, "Hurts the family farms." They could have fixed all this stuff in a day had they wanted to. But it's better politics to leave the law unfixed and taking out little people left and right. These bastards pass thousand page bills every day loaded with surgical details carefully placed there by corporate special interests. No mistakes there, by God.

Just take the stupid sharp edges out of the law, for crying out loud. Don't throw MILLIONS OF BABIES out with the bath water.

The law as it stood only kicked in on estates larger than $200K. That could have been changed. But there's a point where it gets to be ridiculous, when the deficits are at an all-time high and growing, to eliminate entirely a tax that has existed for almost 100 years is mind boggling. Make it estates over $2 million if you want. Put it on a graduated scale.

Jeez, how do you tax the rich in this country. While they're alive they exploit every possible loophole and shelter, and now you can't touch their money even after they're dead and don't need it any more. I'm not a communist but shit, this country is broke. Schools, social services, infrustructure... it's going to be a giant nightmare for decades.

While everyone was crying over 9/11 and watching Iraq, this adminstration has puposely and quietly wrecked the country.

[jammerbirdi]

[buckfifty98]

As a land surveyor, I find myself on the phone with old farmers who are trying to leave the farm to their kids. They have combines (roughly 100k a piece), machinery, animals, and dairy equipment that can't just be given away. These are not fancy people. These are very hard working, salt of the earth folks. There is the "gift tax", there are capital gains taxes, there is the death tax and so on. ENOUGH! I remember reading in the newspaper about 2 brothers who farmed the same ground for 50 or 60 years. They never bought a tractor, just used mules and draft horses up until a short while ago. When one of the brothers died, the other was forced to sell their farm which had been in their family for years and of course was worth many thousands of dollars. It was a capital gains nightmare and of course all the other shit taxes that kicked in left him with little to live on.

That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to family businesses that it takes decades to build, that have lots of assets in things like ovens and buildings but little actual cash. No, I don't like those crappy taxes because I'm trying to build a little business of my own that gets taxed and regulated into oblivion and that is getting old.

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The contrary may also be shown.

[jammerbirdi]

[buckfifty98]

True, it is small potatoes (farming pun there) in the grand scheme of taxing EVERYTHING. The large agricultural concerns are buying up everything they can and as they begin to control the flow of food more and more, they also amass the resources to dodge their own tax obligations. Most of the large old family farms that I survey for developers, get sold by the elderly owners because the children don't want to be farmers and the old timers have to look out for themselves. I urge them to use a 1031 exchange if possible to try to keep some of their equity but most end up coughing up huge sums of any profit to taxes.

I know I come off as an anti-tax zealot sometimes but this time of year always pisses me off. I know everyone has to pay their share of taxes to keep things going but the WASTE AND FRAUD that goes on in every level of government frustrates me. I look around me as I pay and pay and pay and wonder where the end is. We are taxed when we get paid, we are taxed when we buy, taxed when we own something, taxed when we eat, taxed when we telephone, taxed when we drive, and so on. But it is NEVER enough.

I still think it is appropriate for children to get what their parents worked so hard for IF that is what the parents want to do. Why should the government get everything when we die? For what purpose? To bomb a new target?

_________________
The contrary may also be shown.