XBradTC

By

XBradTC

·

The Estate Tax

A liberal friend of mine posted on Facebook complaining that the House is going to try to eliminate the estate tax. She included this line: (eliminating the estate tax)…that will cost $270 billion over 10 years. Here’s my reply: I’m against the estate tax on general principles. The government has already taxed those monies multiple…

A liberal friend of mine posted on Facebook complaining that the House is going to try to eliminate the estate tax.

She included this line:

(eliminating the estate tax)…that will cost $270 billion over 10 years.

Here’s my reply:

  • I’m against the estate tax on general principles. The government has already taxed those monies multiple times.
    On a more practical level, I’d certainly like to see the exemption level raised far, far above what it is. Very often, the wealth being taxed is in fact a small business, closely held by a family, and very illiquid. The only possible way to generate the cash to pay the levied tax is to sell the business. Families that had worked and fully expected their progeny to carry on their business suddenly find they can no longer keep the business in the family. And of course, being compelled to sell, they frequently are forced to sell at a price less than what they should.

    And I loathe the formulation you used here.

    • that will cost $270 billion over 10 years.
    That’s not a cost. That’s merely revenue the government wont be taking in over the next decade.
    If that $270 billion is paid to the government, that is a cost. It is a cost to the families that have to pay that money, money that has already been taxed multiple times, to the federal government. That’s money out of the pockets of your fellow citizens.
    All this at a time when the US government is bringing in more revenues than at any time in history.

    Tags:

    1. Quartermaster

      The statement you are criticizing is typical of leftards. They understand little, and know even less.

      Like

    2. KenWats

      I’m far from a left-tard. But, if we’re going to tax something, why not tax something which the person getting it hasn’t actually worked for it (vice an income tax, where we’re discouraging people from being productive members of society). Just a different viewpoint anyway.

      Like

    3. Shaun Evertson

      You’re making me cross. That seems to be an enormously flawed assumption you’re making there. However, it neatly illustrates one of the major problems facing our American society these days.

      Like

    4. Shaun Evertson

      Full disclosure. I’m a rancher. My siblings and I own a good bit of land (a lot to the typical American, rather small compared to a “real ranch”) and operate a rather successful cattle business. Your points about multiple bites at the apple and illiquidity are spot on. It cost my folks a great deal of rather scarce cash to avoid losing the ranch to greed. My great grandfather homesteaded the ranch in the late 1800’s, and he, his sons, grandsons, great grandsons, and one day great-great grandsons have made it what it is today. Not one single greedy leftist (or indeed, greedy rightist) has ever lifted a finger to help. So you might understand when I say that none of those corksatchers need any more of my family’s wealth. Which each of us has worked hard for, despite the simple-minded assertions of many (if not most) of my rockheaded friends and neighbors. Those parasites are getting too much as it is.

      Like

    5. Tarl

      The government hasn’t “actually worked for it” either, nor have the people to whom the government would give the money.

      Like

    6. Quartermaster

      What’s happening is that FedGov has gotten out of its cage and is engaging in charity, an unconstitutional activity. When it takes money to engage in that, it is stealing. There is no difference between someone holding a pistol to your head on the street and the government holding pistol to your head in your home on behalf of those it will give the money to.

      Government is no longer just a necessary evil, it has become completely evil and it is trying to grow by leaps and bounds. The founder foresaw this sort of nonsense and wrote the constitution in the manner they did to prevent exactly what is happening now. The result has been the destruction of the rule of law and the chaos is increasing.

      Like

    7. diogenesofnj

      She’s not your friend.

      Like

    8. timactual

      Another example of the hypocritical greed and envy that consumes the left.

      Like

    9. Paul L. Quandt

      The time is rapidly approaching when it will be necessary to eliminate the leftist/communists.

      Paul

      Like

    10. Casey Tompkins

      Ken, you’re begging the question whether this should be taxed in the first place. You’re also implicitly approving an attack on property rights because you evidently don’t think a given individual “deserves” that property.

      As soon as we allow the government to decide which property people are allowed to keep, and which property they don’t deserve, we have started on a transformation of citizens into subjects.

      If someone owns something, it’s theirs. It’s just that simple. The only time government can take it away from them is by way of eminent domain, which has become increasingly abused to the point where a local city government has taken people’s homes so a private investment firm may build a shopping center or luxury apartment building.

      Question: if I give my daughter a car, and she keeps it (in good shape) for so long it becomes a valuable classic, should the government be allowed to tax her on that? If so, why should we allow taxes on keeping our property in good condition?

      What I’m hearing here (not just from you) is something parallel to Obama’s “you didn’t build that” attitude.

      Like

    11. Casey Tompkins

      As a post script, the Feds took in ~$3 trillion of revenue just last year. It’s not a revenue problem. It’s a spending problem.

      Like

    12. scottthebadger

      The Federal Government took in 3 Trillion, and squandered it.

      Like

    Leave a comment