t2,..***OFF TOPIC***The Estate Tax
THE CASE FOR REPEALING THE ESTATE TAX
" Congress recognized in 1976 that a tax intended to diminish the power of great wealth
MORE FREQUENTLY ended up taxing ordinary Americans who had accumulated taxable
estates through nothing more than frugality, entrepreneurship, and plain hard work. "
TA
A must read, for Bill Gates, Rockfeller, Buffett, Dashcler,Ted_Martha's Vineyard_Kennedy and
all the good old boys.
heritage.org
....The Founders understood the critical importance of reducing legal barriers to economic
opportunity as the best public means of allowing every citizen to achieve economic fulfillment.
This understanding found a home in the original U.S. Constitution, where direct taxes on wealth
and income were prohibited except in time of national emergency. But soon after the ratification
of the Sixteenth Amendment (which lifted the ban on federal income taxation) in 1913, the
federal government began a 60-year effort to create a more democratic economy through the
forcible redistribution of wealth. That policy has imposed costs on economic growth as
well as fundamental liberties. ..................
........Liberated from the oppressive economic and social networks that had surrounded the
Crown and that prevented ordinary people from rising, the Revolutionaries emphasized the
importance of allowing the marketplace rather than birth and influence to be the measure of
personal worth. As Gordon Wood writes in his Pulitzer Prize-winning history of this period,
A man was now praised for having arrived and
risen "without friends," for having been "the
architect of his own fortune," or for never
having been "borne on the shoulders of
patronage." For many Americans the ability to
make money -- not whom one knew, or who one's
father was, or where one went to college -- now
became the only proper democratic means for
distinguishing one man from another.4
Nothing epitomizes the zeal of the Revolutionaries for fundamentally altering the process of
acquiring wealth better than the rapid abolition of primogeniture and the narrowing of
entail. The ancient practice of primogeniture settled the entirety of an estate on the first-born
male, thus leaving the remaining male children and all female children without inheritance.
.......Entail nicely complemented primogeniture by making it all but impossible for real estate to
leave a family, no matter how desirous a family one day might be to part with the property or
how badly they managed their estate..........
........
Even a cursory reading of the Revolutionary texts underscores this unrelenting focus of
the Founders on removing barriers to the wealth-creating process. Early American public
policy was not aimed at redistributing wealth or at restraining its growth. Rather, the early
Republic pursued a public policy of removing obstacles to entrepreneurship and economic
self-improvement......
...... After 1916, and despite a few efforts to retreat from estate and gift taxation immediately
following World War I, taxes on intergenerational wealth transfers became a permanent feature
of U.S. tax policy. ....
............. The history of wealth transfer taxation between 1920 and 1976 consisted largely of
expanding the tax base for estate and gift taxes and increasing the tax rates. Congress raised the
top marginal rate for estate taxes to 40 percent in 1924. In 1932, the top rate rose to 45
percent and the gift tax became permanent. The imminence of hostilities in 1941 caused
Congress to search for additional revenues and led to a further increase in the top rate on
estates to 77 percent.13
==============================
You said
Message #18608 from t2 at Feb 14, 2001 6:58 PM
OT OT..TA, I can't resist posting this story.
Very nice people, don't you think???
FWIW, I agree with them 100%.
Taxation can be good sometimes.
I know you are getting ready to pull something out of some right wing publication---Limbaugh or something.<ggg>
politics.yahoo.com.
Bill Gates Sr., George Soros, Steven Rockefeller, 100 Others Oppose Estate Tax Repeal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOSTON, Feb. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Over 100 prominent business and philanthropic leaders today issued a joint statement, covered on the front page of today's New York Times, opposing President Bush's proposed repeal of the estate tax. Signers include William H. Gates, Sr.; George Soros; Steven C. Rockefeller and other members of the Rockefeller family; Ben Cohen; art patron Agnes Gund; other philanthropists; and members of Responsible Wealth with both new entrepreneurial wealth and old inherited wealth. (See statement and partial signer list below.)
CONFERENCE CALL: Responsible Wealth will host an opportunity for journalists to interview Bill Gates Sr., Chuck Collins of United for a Fair Economy, and other critics of estate tax repeal on Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 1 p.m. EST. Some signers of the statement are also available for one-on-one interviews.
"Repealing the estate tax would leave an unfortunate legacy for America's future generations," the signers warn. Repeal would undermine philanthropy and "would enrich the heirs of America's millionaires and billionaires while hurting families who struggle to make ends meet." The signers say, "Let's fix the estate tax, not repeal it." For more information, visit responsiblewealth.org.
Responsible Wealth is a national network of businesspeople, investors and affluent Americans concerned about deepening economic inequality and advocating widespread prosperity.
------ To register for Tuesday's conference call, call 617-423-2148, ext. 13 or return the information below by e-mail to bleondar-wright@ufenet.org or by fax to 617-423-0196.
NAME: AFFILIATION: PHONE: E-MAIL: FAX:
Registration deadline is Friday, Feb. 16; instructions for joining the call will be sent.
------ A CALL TO PRESERVE THE ESTATE TAX
"We believe that complete repeal of the estate tax would be bad for our democracy, our economy, and our society. Repealing the estate tax, a constructive part of our tax structure for 85 years, would leave an unfortunate legacy for America's future generations.
"Only the richest 2 percent of our nation's families currently pay any estate tax at all. Repealing the estate tax would enrich the heirs of America's millionaires and billionaires while hurting families who struggle to make ends meet.
"The billions of dollars in state and federal revenues lost will inevitably be made up either by increasing taxes on those less able to pay or by cutting Social Security, Medicare, environmental protection, and many other government programs so important to our nation's continued well-being.
"The estate tax exerts a powerful and positive effect on charitable giving. Repeal would have a devastating impact on public charities ranging from institutions of higher education and land conservancies to organizations that assist the poor and disadvantaged.
"We recognize the importance of protecting America's family farms and small businesses, and the estate tax has many special provisions that do so. But this concern -- the rationale usually advanced for eliminating the estate tax -- can be addressed by amending the existing estate tax system.
"Let's fix the estate tax, not repeal it!"
Signed,
William H. Gates Sr. George Soros Steven C. Rockefeller David Rockefeller Jr. Eileen Rockefeller Growald Robert Cook Agnes Gund Ben Cohen Henry and Edith Everett Peter Barnes Richard and Jing Lyman Martin Rothenberg Roger Rath Mal Warwick Katherine Pillsbury Judy Wicks Mike Lapham Carol Bernstein Ferry Franklin and Jinx Roosevelt Sarah Stranahan and over 100 others
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