Re the inheritance tax, I get the point but I wonder about the practicality of placing the responsibility on the beneficiary to pay the capital gains tax.
First of all you give the beneficiary a problem if the person who dies hasn't kept records or the records can't be found. If Uncle Joe dies and you find a tin box full of gold coins in the basement, how do you know where he acquired and their value at the time? *
The second problem is with assets that would have to be sold to pay the tax. The family business, for example. Or art works. Maybe something could be worked out where the estate's capital gains tax could be paid over time out of the profit from the business. Or the inheritor of the painting could pay the IRS annually for the taxes allowing continued use of it in the home. Not saying that these problems couldn't be worked out, only that there would be problems to work out.
Re the negative income tax, I've been reading about that for a good four decades and I've never seen her argument before about placing the burden of raising taxes on everyone, not just the tax payers. I think that's a terrific argument.
OTOH, I don't know that she's considered the incentives for work as thoroughly as is needed. She's right about the part she considered, people who would lose current benefits if they worked. But I wonder how many people who know work would work if they could collect $28K for not working. I'd need to see something that projects work incentive for those now working, not just for those now collecting welfare.
And where did she come up with $28K? That seems like a lot to me. I know people who live more or less adequately on half that. Could we afford to double the income of all of them?
* I got a call from a heir finder (forensic geneologist) a while back. Seems like a cousin died without a will and I'm due to receive a portion of his estate. I haven't been in touch with him since we were kids. The state takes a chunk, the heir finder takes a chunk, and I suppose that, with Jane's plan, there would be a tax guy to take the rest. We'd need forensic tax guys. One racket ends, another begins. |
