Quote:
Originally Posted by thatmariolover
It's more rich taxing. I'm not going to argue the morality of it, but realistically this isn't going to effect anybody on this site (unless you've got a secret stash of gold, somewhere).
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Not really. Sure, it does affect the rich to point, but as I mentioned earlier it also attacks those who are not traditionally wealthy, destroys the wealth of a growing middle class and prevents that wealth from reaching upper class status in an organic fashion.
Sure, those who make miraculous leaps into wealth will become rich, but the idea of building wealth from generation to generation is destroyed with a death tax.
The worst part is that the wealthy more often than not don't even pay these taxes because they have tax lawyers who protect it via A/B Trusts and other shelters. New wealth doesn't have knowledge to hire this type of help nor the available cash to hire them if they did.
My parents went through this when my grandmother died and left them 20+ acres and premium developmental land (near worthless farmland when purchased 30 years previous) that they wanted to turn into a horse farm or dog park. After the government was done with them they were forced to take out a second mortgage on their own home to pay the estate and income taxes and sat nervously as they tried to sell my grandmother's property to pay for those taxes. What was supposed to be a boon for my grandmother's entire family; a legacy she wanted us to maintain and grow, turned into a 2 year long nightmare forcing my family to sell family property they wanted to keep. Who bought it? A rich developer who threw up million dollar properties and made out like a bandit on the whole deal.
My parents own a good bit of land in the same area and were able to keep some of the investments my grandmother left them (adding to their own), and they learned very well from their situation and have already taken steps to protect their hard assets for me and my brother. Rest assured, I will NOT be paying estate taxes on my inheritance, but thats not the point. This entire process of estate taxes is an bureaucratic monster that should be destroyed. You should not be punished because the American tax system is an unruly and overly complex beast that requires expert help to bypass.
Estate taxes protect existing wealth and even break up new wealth that can then be consumed and profited on by the upper classes.