Death Tax

[Annie]

the inheritance tax, is taxing monies that were never taxed.... how many times does this have to be posted before it sinks in to those supporting the elimination of such?

Would like to say how my parents accumulated over a million dollars from non-taxed dollars? Not true Care. They went through their money, not in the ways they would have chosen. It took them 60 years to save it, from EARNINGS for the vast majority. They weren't 'invested' other than in CD's they bought with EARNED income-which had been taxed.

What about the family of a small/med farmer, whose assets may well exceed 4 million, but whose income was always much lower than that? Too bad for them?

 

[Peejay]

What a hoot. People who wish to control their money after death really expose themsleves as the control freaks they must be. You guys understand what death entails, right ? If you're worried about your stuff, you'd better do something with it while you're alive. Consume it, give it away, what ever.

You would rather the government get your money than your family?

The guy plays a Kazoo for a living, a joan baez wanna be.
I'm sure his tip jar is full of millions.

Since this isn't the first person to make some kind of assesment about what I do for a living and what kind of money I earn, let me give you a little personal history.

I worked for almost 20 years in a family business as a security tech. I provided CCTV, access control, barriers and intrusion systems for the likes of Frito Lay and Metso Power, many, many American and multi national corporations. We contracted with Untied Defense and a couple other giant defense contractors. We contracted with the USAF and the Army at Seymour Johnson and Fort Bragg. Multi million dollar jobs with huge personal pay days. I paid more taxes in 5 years than most will pay in a lifetime.

I got tired of the rat race and opted out. I found my personal happiness in getting paid a modest amount to do what I enjoy. I fugured out a few things are true, like you can't take it with you.

My Dad is pretty ill. Lost his bladder and prostate to cancer last year, and has PLS. His company is worth a ton of money. I wouldn't take the company or the money if you put a gun to my head.

Life is what you make it. If you want to make it about money, you are free to do so. Perhaps on your death bed you will utter "I wish I had spent more time at work."

 

[Care4all]

the inheritance tax, is taxing monies that were never taxed.... how many times does this have to be posted before it sinks in to those supporting the elimination of such?

Would like to say how my parents accumulated over a million dollars from non-taxed dollars? Not true Care. They went through their money, not in the ways they would have chosen. It took them 60 years to save it, from EARNINGS for the vast majority. They weren't 'invested' other than in CD's they bought with EARNED income-which had been taxed.

What about the family of a small/med farmer, whose assets may well exceed 4 million, but whose income was always much lower than that? Too bad for them?

$7.0 million of your parent's money IS NOT taxed upon their deaths....

This is the exemption from any inheritance tax upon death that would cover people like your parents and my parents.

THE MAJORITY of families that are subject to the inheritance tax, did NOT pay ANY taxes on their capital gains....

As example, a family that owns the near majority of stock in a company, like Hilton Hotels as example.... when they got their stock shares from going public, they may have owned their stock at $10 bucks a share, but over the years that stock grew to $100 dollars a share...those capital gains, were never taxed in their lifetime.

If a wealthy person invested in real estate and held on to the real estate for 20-40 years, they may have bought the properties for a million bucks, but when they died, the real estate was worth $200 million, they never paid any capital gains tax on the $199 million in gains of their original investment.

If you go back through the thread, you will see that the majority of people subject to the inheritence tax had huge capital gain income that was never taxed....and $3.5 million of those capital gains are exempt from any tax, or $7.0 million per couple....are exempt from any "death taxes".

My parents are the same as your parents, they never invested in the stock market, only put their money in to CD's and are now millionaires....they saved near every penny they made, never went to the movies or out to dinner even, (mom even sewed our clothes, so they could save money when i was young) they just saved saved and saved and put their savings in to CD's....and i can honestly say, THANK GOD FOR PRESIDENT CARTER when it comes to them, because they had some of their CD's paying 18% interest during his reign and MADE A FORTUNE by their money doubling in value every 4 years at that kind of compounded interest...

Care

 

[midcan5]

The death tax is another silly myth used to keep the wingnuts busy hating who ever it is they hate, usually government or so called lefties. Seems the fools never learned there is no such as a death tax for those smart enough to share before they die. Please wingnuts keep busy worrying about nonsense, er, ah, I mean important stuff, but can't you worry in private so you don't bother sensible people. Thanks

http://www.insureain.com/articles/deathtax.pdf

 

[Yurt]

The death tax is another silly myth used to keep the wingnuts busy hating who ever it is they hate, usually government or so called lefties. Seems the fools never learned there is no such as a death tax for those smart enough to share before they die. Please wingnuts keep busy worrying about nonsense, er, ah, I mean important stuff, but can't you worry in private so you don't bother sensible people. Thanks

http://www.insureain.com/articles/deathtax.pdf

um, mr. i'm afraid to debate at dp.....your link is wrong....death taxes have been around over half a century before the civil war, they were called legacy taxes and are very different from modern death taxes and different from the civil war death taxes which were repealed after no longer needed.

fact is, this modern death tax has no purpose, save to fill the government's coffers. you believe that the government should control everything, you are an enemy to our constitution.

 

[Burp]

Wow...looks like I missed a few exciting things.

You see, I work during the day and can't post until I get home. So for all those who said I would disappear, well, you are wrong. Always assume..and you look like an ass.

It's amazing to me how people automatically assume (again) that just because someone posts something, that post applies directly to them. Sheesh people, this is a message board; a forum for debate and discussion.

Whoever made the comment about a fire hydrant and being pissed on was dead on.

I'm guessing those of you who feel the death tax is perfectly acceptable are also Obamatrons - you find something to jump on to relieve yourself of his disappointing performance so far.

No, I do not have that much money. I would love to by the time I retire however. And with careful planning, I just might.

Regardless of my personal situation, the government should keep their hands off the money I choose to pass on to my family. I have paid taxes already. It doesn't matter if my heirs have "earned" it or not.

I know an elderly woman who has quite a bit of money. She has four kids. They are each married and have 10 kids between them.

She takes all of them on a cruise every year. But it doesn't stop there. She takes the son/daughter in law's parents with them.

She pays for all airfare, balcony suites, and shore excursions. For those of you who have been on a cruise, you can imagine how much this costs her.

I guess all the kids and inlaw's should tell her no this year. I mean, they didn't earn the cruise. They didn't pay for it. Why should they go?

If you won the lotto, would you turn it all down just because you didn't "earn" it?

I think not.

 

[Red Dawn]

Wow...looks like I missed a few exciting things.

You see, I work during the day and can't post until I get home. So for all those who said I would disappear, well, you are wrong. Always assume..and you look like an ass.

It's amazing to me how people automatically assume (again) that just because someone posts something, that post applies directly to them.

gee, I wonder where we got that idea:

Burp, original post:

I work hard. I take care of my finances. I plan ahead. I invest wisely.

I do all this to leave a legacy to my family when I pass.

However, when I die, the government will take 45 percent of my estate.

Can anybody defend this?

I wish you could just be honest, and admit you had no fucking clue the estate tax doesn't apply to you, doesn't apply to ANY working schmucks, and in fact only applies to an extremely tiny percentage of the affluent and wealthy.

 

[garyd]

The notion that whomever I leave whatever money I have beyond a certain amount ought to be subject to taxation by the government simply because I had the misfortune to die is absolutely ludicrous what ever the amount it is set at.

And someone please explain to me exactly how Bill Gates 3 billion a year is a threat to a government that spends nearly twice that a day?

 

[Peejay]

The notion that whomever I leave whatever money I have beyond a certain amount ought to be subject to taxation by the government simply because I had the misfortune to die is absolutely ludicrous what ever the amount it is set at.

And someone please explain to me exactly how Bill Gates 3 billion a year is a threat to a government that spends nearly twice that a day?

Misfortune ? Come on now, let's not look at death as unfortunate. It is inevitable, it is set in stone. You will die.

You aren't really taxed for dying. You're dead, you see. When your money is being transfered, it is taxed. It's an age old concept that is covered here. Some of the brightest men that built this country realized the dangers of great fortunes being passed to those who did not earn them. Even so, with the tax, there is still a great amount of wealth passed to people who did not earn it.

Again, just give while you live. I think we could more appropriately call it a "greed tax". If you were greedy enough to hold onto all that money until you died, well......you're just greedy.

 

[Care4all]

The death tax is another silly myth used to keep the wingnuts busy hating who ever it is they hate, usually government or so called lefties. Seems the fools never learned there is no such as a death tax for those smart enough to share before they die. Please wingnuts keep busy worrying about nonsense, er, ah, I mean important stuff, but can't you worry in private so you don't bother sensible people. Thanks

http://www.insureain.com/articles/deathtax.pdf

um, mr. i'm afraid to debate at dp.....your link is wrong....death taxes have been around over half a century before the civil war, they were called legacy taxes and are very different from modern death taxes and different from the civil war death taxes which were repealed after no longer needed.

fact is, this modern death tax has no purpose, save to fill the government's coffers. you believe that the government should control everything, you are an enemy to our constitution.

Yurt,

Aren't ALL taxes to fill the government's coffer? Why not stop the income tax, since it too, is "just to fill the gvt's coffers"?

Who do you suppose will have to make up the difference of the +/- 30-100 billion collected from inheritance taxes that our government gets?

My answer would be, those of us having to pay income taxes. I don't know about you, but i think we aready pay enough in income taxes and do not want to see those in the middle to upper middle class being hit with much higher taxes than we are now.

If our spending was close to what we collect in taxes, then maybe this discussion of eliminating the inheritance tax could have more meaning or a leg to stand on, but since we are short on tax collection by about a trillion dollars a year, there is no point.

We added $6 trillion to the National Debt under the Bush presidency in just his 8 years, and who knows what we will end up adding under Obama's term. This is killing us all with a $400 billion a year INTEREST ONLY payment, on our National debt as it stands now, only to go up if Obama continues the over spending that was started under President Bush. 40% of our income taxes collected goes towards paying this national debt's interest and it could double by the end of Obama's reign to $800 billion a year just for the interest payment on what we have borrowed from foreign countries, which would be about 80% of what we collect in Income taxes today...leaving no money to pay for Defense, let alone other necessities.

Care

 

[Vel]

You were always told you couldn't take it with you, and you thought it was a joke.
Fact: dead folks don't vote, so politicians of both parties tend to ignore them at campaign time.

They do if they died in Memphis.

 

[garyd]

Or Chicago and always for Democrats...

 

[PeterS]

I work hard. I take care of my finances. I plan ahead. I invest wisely.

I do all this to leave a legacy to my family when I pass.

However, when I die, the government will take 45 percent of my estate.

Can anybody defend this?

You're dead. You don't have an estate...

On edit: If your child needs your estate to maintain quality of life that is the legacy you left them. Gold is not a legacy...

 

[garyd]

Wrong.

 

[Iriemon]

I work hard. I take care of my finances. I plan ahead. I invest wisely.

I do all this to leave a legacy to my family when I pass.

However, when I die, the government will take 45 percent of my estate.

Can anybody defend this?

- "Like omigawsh, I think that, like, the death tax, totally sux. I mean, people like me tooootally deserve to be able to spend our entire lives engaging in money-wasting hedonistic debauchery while contributing absolutely nothing to society simply because we had rich ancestors."

...

LOL -- It's true, why have an inheritance tax? I for one am happy to pay a higher rate of tax on money I work to make for so that fine folks like Paris might inheret hundreds of millions tax free. After all, she showed the hard work, determination and talent to choose the right womb to be born to.

It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

 

[garyd]

And at the rate Paris spends she contributes more in Sales tax Revenues to various cities, states, and counties than you or I will make in a life time.

 

[Iriemon]

And at the rate Paris spends she contributes more in Sales tax Revenues to various cities, states, and counties than you or I will make in a life time.

Good point. I feel better now paying higher taxes on what I work for even though that means I can buy less, knowing that mean that the Parises will be able to buy more and thereby pay more sales tax.

 

[garyd]

Good for you. Mommy and daddy are still alive. They don't live hear technically anymore than J.Paul Getty did. Lots of luck collecting a dime from them.

 

[Iriemon]

What a hoot. People who wish to control their money after death really expose themsleves as the control freaks they must be. You guys understand what death entails, right ? If you're worried about your stuff, you'd better do something with it while you're alive. Consume it, give it away, what ever.

You would rather the government get your money than your family?

Good point.

And that's exactly why I'd be a little annoyed at having to effectively pay higher taxes so the trust fund babies of the world can inheret billions tax free.

 

[HUGGY]

the inheritance tax, is taxing monies that were never taxed.... how many times does this have to be posted before it sinks in to those supporting the elimination of such?

Would like to say how my parents accumulated over a million dollars from non-taxed dollars? Not true Care. They went through their money, not in the ways they would have chosen. It took them 60 years to save it, from EARNINGS for the vast majority. They weren't 'invested' other than in CD's they bought with EARNED income-which had been taxed.

What about the family of a small/med farmer, whose assets may well exceed 4 million, but whose income was always much lower than that? Too bad for them?

You obviously know little about farming. I grew up on a small farm. 200 acres originally purchased for $40,000 in 1957. And that price was high because it was on Orcas Island with 1500 ft of beach. Point is is that a small farm is typically way under a million in assets even today.