by Andrew Mangione –
In an effort to support family businesses and mature Americans directly, AMAC is proud to announce our support for a bicameral piece of legislation, the “Death Tax Repeal Act of 2013.” Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Senator John Thune (R-SD) introduced H.R. 2429 and S. 1183 to protect small businesses and hard-working Americans – especially seniors and their families – from the devastating impact of the Federal estate tax, known more commonly as the “death tax.” Repealing this destructive tax is critical to keeping family businesses intact and to promoting socially and economically beneficial intergenerational saving. Currently, more than 70 percent of family businesses do not survive to the second generation, and 90 percent don’t survive to the third generation. AMAC believes the “Death Tax Repeal Act of 2013” is necessary to stopping these injustices and to promoting principles of personal responsibility, hard work, savings, and intergenerational altruism. AMAC greatly appreciates Rep. Brady and Sen. Thune’s concern for this issue and their steadfast commitment to older Americans, families, and small businesses. Thanks to their leadership on this important matter, AMAC is pleased to partner with Rep. Brady and Sen. Thune in combating the Federal death tax.
Let’s break it down to this, over simplified statement.
Our income is taxed. Our purchases are taxed. Unless there’s a bank loan or credit card statement, when we die, everything is more than paid for.
Anything we leave to our family has already been taxed on the front end & the back end. It belongs to the family. Be it a house, car, business or plain old cash in the bank. It’s been taxed. And if it’s cash, the interest has been taxed. It’s all bought & paid for.
Rich or poor, enough is enough. Redistribution of American wealth is certainly leaning towards a socialist agenda if you ask me. You can be jealous of the rich, but does anybody have the right to take their family home, cars, etc. from their heirs? These things have been bought and paid for. You can’t have a good for the goose, but not the gander scenario. Possibly loopholes need to be closed on their income tax end, but their purchases? How can anyone justify that?
Oversimplified example: You make $100k a year and your neighbor only makes $25k a year, so you have 4 cars (you, your wife an each kid) but your neighbor only has 1, should your family have to give them a car when you die? Because it’s just not fair? You want more “things”, get a second job, work harder, go back to school, whatever it takes.
Too many hands in too many pockets.
The people making the laws are paid from the taxes of the working people and get more in a month than most elderly retired on Social Security and now as I understand it, want to take half of what they own, including their Life Insurance that you are paying so that your children want have to go in debt to pay for the funeral. If that isn’t GREED I don’t know what is.
That the Death Tax is un-American is but part of the equation. The entire Income Tax along with the IRS should go, along with the Sixteenth Amendment. HR-25 fairly shifts taxes from income to consumption, and will soon receive a vote by the Ways & Means committee. Passing it will restore the intent of our Constitution.
I disagree with those who state that there are few small businesses that make $5 million. There are many small businesses worth $5 million or more. I disagree with government, for doing nothing but putting obstacles in the way of all businesses, then demanding 1/2 or more of ANY business, big or small, as a tax on inheritances, personal or business. This is just another way of government gaining control over anything and everything that rightfully belongs to others. This can result in businesses having to sell in order to pay government.
We presently have an administration that is taxing us more and more for anything and everything possible, in a mostly covert manner. It was “this” current administration who created this Death Tax; they are running rampant over our country and the Constitution. I am in favor of repealing.
I think all taxes should be stopped that are no more than government greed. We live our lives paying taxes for everything. It is a crying shame that after we are gone, the government wants to take everything we were able to put away for our next generation. I understand that we should pay some taxes to help keep our country in a stable condition but, taking something that is not rightfully there’s is nothing more than theft. Everyone should open there eyes to the fact that over the decades, there have been several socialist presidents and government officials that have tried to make our country a socialist regim. They all failed. We should all do our best to stop the socialist government we have now from destroying us. We are, and have always been a free nation, under god, with liberties we have fought so hard to keep. Let us keep it that way.
Lord forgive those that trespass upon us, but please don’t let them put us under. That is your job.
I support repealing the Death Tax. Our country is becoming a Socialist Country. Taxed for everything we own. Please
vote to do away with this Tax. The farmers are hurt in so many ways, This is one of them.
It has been socialist for decades now, Julia. When the government takes from one to give to another, that’s socialism.
And for a person to work and save money all of their lives, then the governments takes that money as a penalty for dying is pure communism.
That has been the method of the communist party to get the USA under communist control. Go back in history and check out when, and where, our taxes began. Newer taxes have been added on down the communist road one at a time.
How many taxes do we have now? Too many to count.
I do not support repeal of the inheritance tax. As has been stated before, it only affects families whose businesses are in excess of $10 Million. If they repeal the gift tax, they also repeal the inheritance asset exemptions which allows transfer of up to $10M in assets to heirs tax free. If it were a family home which currently transfer tax free with a step up in cost basis, the basis would be what the parents paid for the home and captial gains would be due on sale of the property.
Too often capitol gains are just inflation. The government inflates by devaluing your money and then taxes you on the difference. And to those who believe that repealing the death tax would aid the truly wealthy, They can afford the accountants and lawyers to dodge the most most taxes through foundations and trusts. Don’t fool yourself that the death tax is anything but targeting the middle class. The poor can’t pay it and rich won’t.
The government steals your savings by printing dollars that inflate (devalue) our currency, then tax you on “capital gains” – interest that often does not even compensate for the inflation…… that’s fair NOT!
Death taxes do not only impact big companies as you say. My father just passed away and my attorney told me that inherited assets over $200,000 in value are subject to inheritance taxes. The right to personal property including money and other assets is central to a free market society. To say otherwise is a socialist doctrine. Socialism is not what made our country exceptional, our free market system is. The money we earn is not the property of government. They have no legal or moral right to it. Excessive taxes to support government inefficiencies and waste is nothing more than theft to benefit the government elite class, not the poor or underprivileged as the Statist’s claim.
My husband and I are starting a small business to support ourselves in our “retirement”. My children and grandchildren are all active in helping to build it, and we hope that they will keep it going after we are gone. But unless this “death tax” is repealed there is no hope of that happening. Like so many of the laws passed in the last eight or ten years this tax has only one purpose – to destroy American family values and traditions and make sure nothing can be handed down from generation to generation. This tax must be stopped!
Very well articulated. The estate tax, another relic of the progressive Woodrow Wilson era, was created in 1916 to facilitate “fairness”. The concept being, at least from the progressive mindset, that it was somehow unfair for people who have worked hard to create personal wealth above a certain arbitrary government threshold to be able to hand it down to their future generations without the federal government being “entitled” to a share. It was one of Wilson’s attempts at pushing the “economic equality” argument, another progressive talking point. The selling point to the public at the time was that this government share would be used to help aid the poor and less fortunate of society. That’s always what progressives (socialists) say to justify their policies. Unfortunately, like all such socialist policies sold to the public, what really happened was the money was kept by the federal government to fund whatever political boondoggles were in vogue at the time.
Does any of this sound familiar? Well it should. Today we have another progressive (socialist) leader talking about the progressive versions of “fairness” and “economic equality”, which of course have nothing to do with the terms as understood by most Americans. Under socialism, “fairness” is what the government says it is and you have no recourse. “Economic equality” really means that ultimately everyone, but the ruling elite who of course need to be exempt from the rules they impose on everyone else (sound familiar?), are impoverished to the same degree. In short, everyone gets to enjoy foraging for scrapes equally.
The estate tax, along with the rest of the progressive agenda that has been slowly integrated into American society over the decades, must be eliminated. A nation cannot compete and prosper in a global economy, when it is hobbled by such laws and regulatory policies designed to prevent inhibit both.
This tax is very destructive to family businesses. very large businesses probably do the legal things to protect their family interest but a small business will find itself in big legal and finacial diff. after the death of the owner. please remove this tax
shirley wright
Sara seems to shrill for the Democrats and other fellow left travelers, making the usual disparagements of successful people and applauding the dubious benefits of 90% taxation. The highest tax bracket was above 80% roughly between 1934 and 1965 and has only dropped to about 39% in 1992. Taxes are a household’s largest expense. Why would I trust bloated Federal bureaucracies to build this country! Obama had no “shovel ready jobs” when he took office in 2008; he just rewarded his teacher union and UAW supporters with our tax dollars after his first election. Knowledgeable small business owners will purchase legacy life insurance to address the onerous estate tax, so that a family can afford to pay the death tax. Simply put, liberals have not been able to tax death benefits from a life insurance policy due to IRS law defining a life insurance policy, since the premiums are paid with after-tax money. Yes, I want my country back which again would respect the US Constitution and diminish Washington DC’s “soft tyranny” rule.
It ain’t so soft. And besides, the super-wealthy can have their foundations, Sara, and their trust funds, etc. It is the small businesses and small farms that have been in the process of being destroyed for so long that there are no more mom and pop anything left.
And Raymond, the cost of insurance to cover the boss may even be beyound a marginal business that does at the least gain a family a modicum of a comfortable life. I would rather see all direct taxes repealed, with the exception of the direct taxes to the states based upon their census as allowed by the Constitution. How the various States chose to collect it would be up to them. That way, the States could have more input as how our tax dollars are spent at the Federal level. It is my belief that the prosperity of the U.S. since WWII has more to do with hard work, a world reserve currency and the distruction of the majority of producing nations. We were the only one left standing. Of course our free markets did their part. We no longer have free markets nor free trade, but instead, regulations and trade agreements that are themselves not free with overseers in international bureaucracies that offer no redress. Not only are we smothered in admisistrative law in the U.S., but international administrative is ever growing. Not only the death tax needs abandoning, all international agreements that require our country to abide by unelected foriegn menbers’ approval need to be done away with.
I hope we can shut off the “Kool-Aid” progressive faucet and get back to the nation we could be with this next election cycle. The death tax is only one of the many, many aggressive assaults on free enterprise that are taking place. This time, Brady did good
There are few “small businesses” that are worth over 5 million….the cut for what you call “death taxes”…..or inheritance taxes.
BUT…..this will be the excuse to remove all inheritance taxes, again gifting the richest to become that much more so.
That cap could be raised, and probably should to adjust for inflation. But to allow this to extend to those with many millions and billionaires is beyond foolish.
Perhaps you aren’t old enough to know that there was a time then IRS claimed 90%…..but individuals used the deductions to BUILD this country…..businesses, property, apartments, etc……the most profitable period in our history.
AND…..inheritance taxes came in at $60,000….which was way too low.
But the purpose of inheritance taxes was never to hurt the “little man” or small businesses….it was to keep the richest from doing what they ARE doing now…..with such tremendous wealth…..and favorable supreme court decisions…..destroying this country.
Look at the Koch brothers…..and Romney. I back NEITHER political party, as it is obvious that neither represents the American public. The Kochs backed the precursor to the Tea Party, and fund the Tea Party…..and have virtually changed the make up of some states……..attempting to revert to decades ago.
Romney? His inheritance was quite a nice chunk….and his influence has shipped millions of American jobs overseas.
And, Mr. Jordan….NO “viable” sole proprietorship falls apart if the owner has any sense and practices decent estate planning. But, there are fools everywhere who do not practice what wisdom behooves……and suffer the consequences. There is personal responsibility….and no business is a “good business” unless the owner has enough sense to plan for his/her demise and the future. Only fools would not do so. BUT….it sounds good and frightens many…..some of whom haven’t a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of……but for some dumb reason continue to vote against their own best self interests.
And….I care nothing for what any party wants. I want what is best for the United States of America. I am 70 years old, and grew up Republican, with my family receiving invites to inaugurations and events. But that party exists no more.
It’s time polarization of the public for party benefits versus the good of the country ended.
It’s time people understood and made a choice of their allegiance for this country…..and the good of this country…..instead of any party that endless votes against the good of this nation for the benefit of European financiers, corporations, the military industrial complex…..and anyone else that takes from the US and leaves it in the dust.
I want my country back. And, anyone NOT willing to pay taxes shouldn’t have the privilege of being here. Nothing is free…..especially freedom.
But, I fear we have seen the last of that in the United States of America.
money, money, money, money… like that will really make the difference? What is in one’s own pocket should be given be that one person… yet, so often we find some people demanding the right to walk the streets and reach into the pockets of other people in order to distribute according to their desires to those they consider “less fortunate”. Playing God is often a desire of Man… the “I know best” crowd is often times the most selfish and demigod like.
We shall never be the Savior… only the servants.
As a business broker and estate liquidation specialist, I can attest to the seriousness of this issue. I regularly see sole proprietorships fall apart at the death of the owner, leaving the family without means. I urge all small business owners to contact their representatives and urge them to support this bill.