The death tax is pure communism
In Marx's ten point plan for introducing communism the first three are:
I turned to Chas and Andy and said, "Boy, he must own a very profitable farm."
They turned to me and said, "Maybe he inherited the farm from his parents and it's death taxes that he owes."
Death taxes aka inheritance taxes aka estate taxes are one of the biggest reasons that family farms are becoming a thing of the past and agribusiness now owns most farms. Many times family farms have to be sold just to pay the taxes.
The socalled Estate Tax exempts all legacies left to one's spouse but not to one's children or business partners (like Chas and Andy) so they and my son would have to pay taxes on whatever I bequeath to them.
Currently the first $2,000,000 is exempted from tax but that exemption will drop to $1,000,000 in 2011 when the amount over one million will be taxed at a rate of 55%. Maybe I should hurry up and die before then.
If you think that's a huge amount of money and that you will never have to think about death taxes, think again. I know ordinary middle-class folk in San Francisco who bought houses ten years ago for $180,000. Those houses are now worth over a million.
I'm not rich. By that I mean I don't have lots of money to spend or drive fancy cars and go on expensive vacations. But I do own a farm and an RV park and rental apartments and houses. They provide me with enough money to live on but not enough to live a life of luxury and leisure. And I have to work to maintain my business because, if I sold everything, I would have to pay capital gains tax and that would leave me with too little interest on the capital to provide enough money for me to live on. I'm rich on paper but I'm working class in reality and I earn a lot less than when I worked in pharmacy.
The equity in my real estate is currently worth over a million and will be worth more by 2011. And don't forget that not only equity but also mortgages are counted as part of the value of the estate just as they are for capital gains tax when they are known as "booty." (I thought pirates stole booty. Oh well, I guess the IRS is in the piracy business.)
Think of a farmer who bought a small 40 acre farm in my neck of the woods way back 30 years ago when he could get it for $2,000 an acre. Nowadays in this area farm land averages $35,000 an acre. That's $1,400,000. If the farmhouse is worth $100,000 that makes it one and a half million. Say the farmer's wife dies before him and he dies in 2011 and bequeaths his estate to his son. The son will have to pay 55% of $500,000 in death taxes. That's $275,000. That's the sort of tax bill that my heirs will have to face. Who's got that sort of money lying around? Now you know why the life insurance industry rakes in the shekels.
Oh and I forgot States also have their own death taxes.
Not only death taxes but corporate taxes, capital gains taxes and taxes on savings interest should be lowered (or preferably scrapped altogether.) These taxes are the biggest obstacles to investment and real economic growth - not the fake "growth" that is created by consumer spending.
Until these confiscatory taxes are dumped, our Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves and Karl Marx is clapping his hands with glee in the depths of hell.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.What got me start thinking about this was that we were watching Jericho last night (which I got on DVD from Netflix and will review with the other DVDs that I rented in the past month later.) In one scene an IRS auditor tells a farmer, "You owe $180,000 in taxes."
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
I turned to Chas and Andy and said, "Boy, he must own a very profitable farm."
They turned to me and said, "Maybe he inherited the farm from his parents and it's death taxes that he owes."
Death taxes aka inheritance taxes aka estate taxes are one of the biggest reasons that family farms are becoming a thing of the past and agribusiness now owns most farms. Many times family farms have to be sold just to pay the taxes.
The socalled Estate Tax exempts all legacies left to one's spouse but not to one's children or business partners (like Chas and Andy) so they and my son would have to pay taxes on whatever I bequeath to them.
Currently the first $2,000,000 is exempted from tax but that exemption will drop to $1,000,000 in 2011 when the amount over one million will be taxed at a rate of 55%. Maybe I should hurry up and die before then.
If you think that's a huge amount of money and that you will never have to think about death taxes, think again. I know ordinary middle-class folk in San Francisco who bought houses ten years ago for $180,000. Those houses are now worth over a million.
I'm not rich. By that I mean I don't have lots of money to spend or drive fancy cars and go on expensive vacations. But I do own a farm and an RV park and rental apartments and houses. They provide me with enough money to live on but not enough to live a life of luxury and leisure. And I have to work to maintain my business because, if I sold everything, I would have to pay capital gains tax and that would leave me with too little interest on the capital to provide enough money for me to live on. I'm rich on paper but I'm working class in reality and I earn a lot less than when I worked in pharmacy.
The equity in my real estate is currently worth over a million and will be worth more by 2011. And don't forget that not only equity but also mortgages are counted as part of the value of the estate just as they are for capital gains tax when they are known as "booty." (I thought pirates stole booty. Oh well, I guess the IRS is in the piracy business.)
Think of a farmer who bought a small 40 acre farm in my neck of the woods way back 30 years ago when he could get it for $2,000 an acre. Nowadays in this area farm land averages $35,000 an acre. That's $1,400,000. If the farmhouse is worth $100,000 that makes it one and a half million. Say the farmer's wife dies before him and he dies in 2011 and bequeaths his estate to his son. The son will have to pay 55% of $500,000 in death taxes. That's $275,000. That's the sort of tax bill that my heirs will have to face. Who's got that sort of money lying around? Now you know why the life insurance industry rakes in the shekels.
Oh and I forgot States also have their own death taxes.
Not only death taxes but corporate taxes, capital gains taxes and taxes on savings interest should be lowered (or preferably scrapped altogether.) These taxes are the biggest obstacles to investment and real economic growth - not the fake "growth" that is created by consumer spending.
Until these confiscatory taxes are dumped, our Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves and Karl Marx is clapping his hands with glee in the depths of hell.
posted by Joubert at 8:50 AM
The Alliance
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