Would you support an estate(death) tax of 75%?

[Flatspriest]

Because one tax does not invalidate another tax.

Moreover; you're dead. You have no further use for that money, and the fact that you 'earned it' in life becomes moot.

Being dead has no bearing on the fact that the taxes have already been paid on the money you made and you should be able to give that money to your relatives without the government double dipping on the taxes. We already received the taxes you paid for earning the money and on purchasing those items, but we want more so you have to have all that money and things you bought taxed AGAIN upon your death. No, that is the way that communism (socialism) does, not a society that is or should be more enlightened.

[Yvaelle]

If the goal is to create a meritocracy, I propose a 100% Estate Tax.
You can give your kids all the advantages in life while you are alive. When you die, they have to make their own successes. That's pretty merit based.


If that's too extreme though - then I think 0% Estate Tax makes more sense.
Sort out the tax system so that you are taxing people appropriately while they are alive (sales tax, luxury tax, income tax, capital gains tax, etc).

[A dot Ham]

I didn't, in fact I answered the most pointed question you asked. Please step up your shitposting.

No actually you didn't, as that question was quite obviously "tongue in cheek"/rhetorical.

A TAX is taken against your will and goes to the federal government (a non profit that provides a service to society) or state/local but in this case estate tax is federal.

A CHARITY is money given of your own volition to a (non profit that provides a service to society)

Warren Buffet gives 1.8 MILLION to the government and gives 2.8 BILLION (not 3.8) which is only 4.3% of his 65 BILLION dollar fortune (not 99%)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...15-return-data

The point is that if we are/were to emulate his actions charities are ~2000 times more worthy of our money than the federal government. You can't give to said charities if the government is taking 75% of your assets upon death.

So again... if he truly felt that the government was the best place to "Redistribute the wealth and let it fall into more able hands." @Hubcap then he would be donating a pittance of 1.8 MILLION to charity, and letting the Federal Government have 2.8 BILLION. He quite clearly doesn't do that so we have to question why... or you should, and perhaps question whether the statement "Warren Buffet is for this idea." is even truthful.

Just because you don't understand something... doesn't make it shit posting.

[Elegiac]

Being dead has no bearing on the fact that the taxes have already been paid on the money you made and you should be able to give that money to your relatives without the government double dipping on the taxes. We already received the taxes you paid for earning the money and on purchasing those items, but we want more so you have to have all that money and things you bought taxed AGAIN upon your death. No, that is the way that communism (socialism) does, not a society that is or should be more enlightened.

"The taxes" are not a generalised mutually exclusive thing. Yes, you paid income and capital gains tax; this is an entirely different tax. There is no 'double dipping' going on; any claims of such is just propaganda spread by the wealthy and bought into by dumbasses who fancy themselves temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

[Karamaru]

I have seen poor families inherit wealth or houses but cant afford the tax that comes with it so they are shit out of luck its, also one of the reasons my family puts their wealth in overseas banks in our home country

[Elegiac]

We call it "inheritance tax". I've always found it to be a stupid and unfair thing; not only does it stem purely from jealousy towards "the rich", but it also effectively prevents poorer families from accumulating wealth.

Considering that the estate tax only kicks in above a certain wealth bracket; no, it doesn't. Stop lying.

[Eyliria]

Lots of people looking for a sweet piece of someone else's pie here.
Get a job.

pS/edit: Good to see reason prevailing on the poll.

[Yvaelle]

Being dead has no bearing on the fact that the taxes have already been paid on the money you made and you should be able to give that money to your relatives without the government double dipping on the taxes. We already received the taxes you paid for earning the money and on purchasing those items, but we want more so you have to have all that money and things you bought taxed AGAIN upon your death. No, that is the way that communism (socialism) does, not a society that is or should be more enlightened.

That's actually not accurate of socialism - the US has one of the top 3 highest estate taxes in the developed world. The only higher countries are Japan and South Korea (both barely) - and they both have other mitigating factors in their tax structures which in effect make the US the highest real estate tax in the developed world.

Many socialist countries have zero estate tax - Norway, Australia, Sweden, Canada, etc.

[GreenJesus]

The estate tax was supposed to be a temporary tax to help fund World War I, but everyone knows "temporary tax raises" is bullshit. States love that new revenue and find ways to use it and then demand to keep the tax in order to pay for their new pet projects.

[Elegiac]

Lots of people looking for a sweet piece of someone else's pie here.
Get a job.

Why can't the kids benefiting from inheritance just 'get a job'.

You're dead, it's not your money anymore.

[Raptor With a Saber]

It depends for me. Exactly what the taxes go towards, Why its not given to family,friends, etc etc. Once all of that is answered then i can give a yes or no

[Dreyen]

I don't think a death tax for regular people would do any good, especially with how expensive it can be to deal with someone's death: I had to with my dad's money for his funeral, and had to pay taxes and electricity bills and insuranc for his house for years i spent trying to sell his house.

That said, I really don't think it would really harm anyone if a billionaire got taxed for 75% of his money on death, I'm sure any kid would be happy enough with -just- 250 million, let alone all the money and advantages they've had in life while their parent was alive.

A tax like this should definitely require scaling based on how much money a person has. It would definitely be a great way to redistribute money from the rich to the poor without butthurting overzealous billionaires too much.

[Epileptica]

You earn money, you pay tax on it, you save it, you die, the money is taxed a second time?

No double taxation please.

There is no double taxation, you are dead. You can`t do anything when you are dead. The question is if the receipient of the dead guys money should pay taxes on the money he receives or not. The most fair taxation model is if everyone pays the same percentage in taxes on all personal income, regardless of the source of the money. Why should an heir skip out on taxes just because he is lucky, while the blue collar guy has to pay taxes on his blood and sweat? Makes no sense.

[shrunken]

No actually you didn't, as that question was quite obviously "tongue in cheek"/rhetorical.

The classic option select. After getting blown up, "Obviously I wasn't being serious." What a sewer rat. lol

[Deleted]

Why can't the kids benefiting from inheritance just 'get a job'.

You're dead, it's not your money anymore.

No, it should belong to your spouse and/or children. Many people work their ass off to provide an easier for their children -- for what? To have the fruits of their efforts stolen by jealous and malicious thieves pretending to be Robin Hoods?

It would definitely be a great way to redistribute money from the rich to the poor

If only it would actually work that way. But no one is more wasteful than a socialist getting access to other people's money.

[Elegiac]

No, it should belong to your spouse and/or children. Many people work their ass off to provide an easier for their children -- for what? To have the fruits of their efforts stolen by jealous and malicious thieves pretending to be Robin Hoods?

And nothing about an estate tax precludes people from doing as such while they are alive.

What estate taxes do is prevent the cordoning off of vast quantities of wealth from society at large into the hands of a few dynasties.

Why do you hate meritocracy?

[zebreck]

On anything above 10mil? yes. That's probably too low a % actually. A progressive estate tax starting at ~10% at 10mil and rising to ~95% at a billion is an overall good thing for literally everyone who isn't the scion of a billionaire. That's you, by the way. The increased relative gains on inherited wealth as compared to real wage growth is a huge factor in why western capitalism is teetering, lurching from bubble to bubble. We need to reign that in, and soon, if we want to perpetuate the systems we're accustomed to into the medium term future. It doesn't matter what you think is fair, math doesn't respect your feelings. Read Capital in the 21st Century by Picketty if you want to know where i'm drawing this from.

[Phookah]

No, it should belong to your spouse and/or children. Many people work their ass off to provide an easier for their children -- for what? To have the fruits of their efforts stolen by jealous and malicious thieves pretending to be Robin Hoods?



If only it would actually work that way. But no one is more wasteful than a socialist getting access to other people's money.

Good, give money to your spouse and children while still alive. No tax on that.

[Milchshake]

And nothing about an estate tax precludes people from doing as such while they are alive.

What estate taxes do is prevent the cordoning off of vast quantities of wealth from society at large into the hands of a few dynasties.

Why do you hate meritocracy?

Ya I had no idea internet forums skewed so heavily towards people that expect to inherit large estates. Really adds depth to the idea of the idle wealthy.

[Unkempt]

I don't get the logic behind the estate tax nor the gift tax. That is essentially what the Estate tax is, a gift of your property to your children. If the Estate tax was at 75%, wouldn't rich people just give their estates to their children early and only pay the 40% tax rate for the gift tax? It's pretty easy to get around. You would only penalize those further if they died younger in life, usually something more tragic like a crash or something.

I don't get why there is a gift tax at all. If I won the Powerball and wanted to gift my parents a home, and paid $300,000 for it, why is the Government entitled to 40% of that?

While the likelihood of small businesses being hurt by the estate tax, it still possible in some industries because of how many assets they may own, rather than just how profitable or liquid assets may be in the business. A business that Mr Buffet has come under fire for this stance as an example, his private plane company, he's rumored to bought quite a few private plan businesses due to distressed sales because of the estate tax. http://humanevents.com/2006/07/10/wa...rom-death-tax/

Mr. Buffet has gotten rich due to the estate tax, it's no wonder he's so vocal about it