Estate Taxes are a Nice Problem to Have

Estate Tax / Elimination of the impact .. buy insurance

I have been in the financial services / Estate planning business for over 33 years. My group of 25 planners only deals with very high net worth clients, all subject to the Estate Tax. All clients can afford the insurance premiums to indemnify the tax. Look around .. the rich are getting richer / the poor are getting poorer. 40 million unuinsured / 20 million underinsured / 2.5 million (mostly poor) in prison. An estimated 30 million hooked on illegal drugs. Our elderly are eating cat food, and are country's infrastrucure is in bad shape. We are fighting 2 wars costing 100 billion annually. The Estate tax was meant to equalize wealth. Let's start thinking more about helping all citizen's instead of trying to help the wealthy pass on more wealth to their spoiled kids, who will be the first to throw them into a nursing home anyway..

Bryn of NJ @ Jul 22, 2009 14:08:20 PM

Estate Tax a Boon for Insurance Agents

As an attorney and licensed insurance agent, I rather look forward to the LOWERING of the estate tax exemption and elimination of the stepped-up basis. Back the wealthier clients against the wall, tax-wise, and purchasing life insurance to pay unavoidable taxes may be their best solution, especially if they choose to leave their estates to family, not charity.

Michael R. Loveridge, J.D. of UT @ Jul 22, 2009 00:28:59 AM

Estate tax

The $800,000,000 is a mythical number. There is no support for it. The estate tax takes in, currently, about $25b per year. 25 X 10 = $250,000,000. The $800,000,000 must assume we return to a 55% rate for estates valued above $1,000,000. The $800 million clearly does not include revenues from the carryover basis provision that will also be enacted as part of the law that eliminates the estate tax in 2010. This provision will tax appreciation that accretes during the decedents life when inheritors sell such assets. This will be a very big revenue source that has never been properly "scored" by the Joint Tax Committee. Then consider this: without an estate tax, the $25 billion dollar a year tax subsidy given to the life insurance industry will fall significantly as those exposed to the estate now will not have a need for the product if the tax goes away. This will save the government at least $20 billion per year.

As the article points out, only 6,000 people pay estate tax each year, out of what, 3.5 million who die? Hence, this is THE most progressive tax on the planet earth. Since the Democrats like the tax so much, I think more of them should get the opportunity to pay it. The rate should be lowered and the base should be broadened.

SAH of MN @ Jul 22, 2009 00:11:43 AM

To: S. Alton of NC (below)

Sorry to inform you of this. But ever since America has had an estate tax (a long time), there is no "earned right" in this country to pass assets to children---except as defined by law. The notion that whatever you get in life is all yours to keep WENT OUT WITH HIGH-BUTTON SHOES. The same is true of making your little kids into titans from inheritance. It's not just the government's need for money. The tax laws are the foundation of American exceptionalism. It's how we prevent ourselves from morphing into a land of lords and serfs over a few generations.

As for me, I have owned and operated my own small business and I also served for 20 years as the accountant for a larger small business than mine. I'm not speaking out of a vacuum, as you imagine.

Muser of NM @ Jul 21, 2009 15:29:48 PM

Estate Taxes

Cindy McCain's family have already paid taxes on the beer distributorship. The same applies to countless small business owners and their families. They paid taxes, they played by the rules, and they earned the right to pass their assets on to their children. You should try it sometime; and then maybe you would wake up and not feel that you have the right to decide a better use for THEIR money.

S Alton of NC @ Jul 21, 2009 13:04:54 PM