Why cut the estate tax?
 

I do not understand why everyone is so down on this tax? The wealthy have never paid tax on the majority of their wealth. When they die seems like a good time for pay back to the system that allowed them to get that rich.

Because it?s a bullshit tax taxing $$$ that has already been taxed

At the level it is at now it does not double tax in most cases. Bill Gates has never paid tax on his stock gains as he did not sell. His whole wealth could be passed down tax free. Close the loops holes and make it 20% or something reasonable. No one one will whine if they only inherit 8million and not 10million.

<insert a bullshit excuse like it helps family farms and small businesses>

The wealthy are greedy and will do whatever it takes to keep it and the sheeple agree with them

Notice how all the tax loopholes stay in place........

Look at the Walton's and Walmart. A good % of their employees get aid from the government

Chump's family will save billions if you believe he is as wealthy as he claims

This is how it looks to me too.

You picked example of stock gains, but there are plenty of wealthy who earned by taxable ways (shit, even as simple as hugely taxed high salaries). So taxing again just because they dared to spend that hard earned money on nice estate?

nobody w $ pays it anyway

That is what rabble thinks.

Do you make the same argument to the cashier at Walmart when you're buying toilet paper?

Ultimately people just need to accept that the lowest levels of employment shouldn't be looked upon as a career. Those positions are ideally there for young students and part time workers who want some extra spending money.

Problems arise when people try to make a career of low value work. If they enjoy that kind of work they should start their own company that specializes in that work for businesses that want to outsource it and open up the possibility of making six figures a year (cleaning, inventory, etc). Unfortunately, many long term minimum wage employees are low IQ (possibly to the point of high functioning retardation) and unable to see a path out of these jobs. These are the people you see on TV protesting McDonald's for a "living wage."

You really have it all wrong.

There is to gain or loss on a capital asset until it is sold (or possibly bartered in trade).

• I own a house -- I will it to my son.
• I die -- my son moves into the house and lives there?
• Where is the gain or loss?
• The house just has a new owner by inheritance and new occupant.
• If my son sells the house then there is a real issue;
• His cost basis is FMV at the time of inheritance when determining the gain or loss.
• In essence he paid no cash for the house -- the cost basis should be -0- as it is all profit.

If you buy a house you bought it with after tax earnings -- so why should your heir pay tax -- unless there is a realized gain. When you die why should your wealth still have its tax standing? It makes no difference to you -- you are dead.

Stocks and bonds (as well as other financial instruments) are treated for FMV the same way.


Persons that get the capital stock in a corporation get it for funding that new corporation with after-tax monies.

People that exercise stock options pay for them at the option price and pay income tax on the option price. When they sell the stock acquired they pay capital gains tax or income tax if the stock is sold in less than one year.
If you hold and don't sell something there is no realized gain for tax purposes.

It would be more honest and simple (as well as fairer) to just raise the personal income tax rate on people earning (realizing net income) over 20 times the federal poverty rate (about $300K) . Maybe add a super income tax rate (surcharge) too.

How much do you get paid being a full time asshole?

Not everyone can be a well paid Chump/Putin/Russian troll like yourself.



ooooops! My Bad! You do it for a chance to suck their cock!

I totally get that. The society we live in has to be paid for. This tax hits when you are dead and only hits less then 1%of the population. No one in this thread is going to have their heirs taxed heavily on this law. It is really a non issue but you can get a hug fight with people over this one. The only reason it keeps coming up at all is rich people donate and rich people get elected. We all should be for this tax.

This tax is horrible. It slams the middle class.

A friend of mine recently lost her father. He owned an apartment complex, a nice house, a vacation home, two nice cars... Once she sat down with his accountant she discovered the truth. The apartment complex hadn't made money in some time and was failing, and was behind on all of it's bills. To continue his lavish lifestyle he refinanced his house taking most of the money out of it. The vacation home wasn't his home at all but a lease, one of the cars was leased and she had to pay to get rid of it, and the other car was worth less than was due on it. He also had $100k in credit card debt.

On paper she inherited millions. But the reality is she had to pay taxes on a business that was failing and a house that was completely underwater. She went straight into bankruptcy because of all of this, but still had to pay taxes on it.

Thankfully my mother and I have already prepared for this.

Because the 1% decide the politicians, they decide the rules.

So you're saying if someone owns a $10 million apartment complex but owes $10 million on it when they die their heirs are going to owe $4 million in taxes? Bullshit.

A mortgage or trust deed has to be paid in full before you can inherit the property (with a few executions (possibly)).

Either the cash in the estate pays it (possibility by the sale of other assets) or the property is (usually) sold to the highest bidder at the probate court sale or possibility at a trustee's sale.

This excatly

Well said. The very wealthiest people use tax loopholes such as trusts and foundations to pass their wealth to their heirs without taxes. Just as other tax "incentives and breaks" are for wealthy people to avoid paying tax, the middle class bear the brunt by paying these taxes. A flat tax with 3-4 levels without any deductions would be the fairest. Credits for things such as children could still be used as well as dependent parents.

why is this your excuse for everything lately?

People with the most excuses seem to get nowhere ever...

I have no idea where the controversy is. You work hard your whole life so you can leave what you earned to your kids. Not leave half to your kids, the other half to the government.

How would you feel if this tax applied to everyone including you? That half of what your parents left you would be taxed, and then half of what you leave to your kids would be stolen by the government too. Would you be just as excited about this tax?

Of course your response will be "but they are rich, so [some bullshit reason]", which really translates to "the tax doesn't apply to me, so fuck them".

The fucking idiots on GFY must come from impoverished families. Not every estate has millions or billions in it.

I am very glad only a small portion of my father's estate was taxable; splitting it among 10 kids was one thing, including the government would have made it a pittance.

You get that this is not possible right? It does not kick in until you are over 5 million net worth. So if the apartment building was worth 5 million, then she could sell it and pay all of the stuff and have zero tax liability.

As I havbe only one excuse, I will go far.

If you think the people donating money to politicians to get what the average person wants. You're delusional. It's happening in Europe as well, but here when it gets exposed it's a scandal.

And all the things the government provides are free. You're delusional. Look at where the government spends the money and suggest some cuts.

https://media.nationalpriorities.org...-spending2.png

Maybe they could hand everything over to the private sector and run like the Healthcare industry. :1orglaugh

This tax only hits the rich. I will not be hit by it or would not as we speak. 98% of the US population will avoid it. Ok so it hits the truly wealthy. If someone accumulated billions and needs to pay tax on his untaxed wealth at death, it seems a fair trade off. No heirs are going begging at this point. We do need to pay the govt bills. Paying tax when I die seems like a decent trade off.

If the tax applied to everyone, so you would be affected too, would you still think it's a good idea?