Flap, you keep talking about "fat cat"...how about these: Gates Sr, Wants to Preserve the Estate Tax ETC!!! Maybe they could just donate ALL their Estate to the Government via their wills, and leave the rest of us out of it entirely....Problem is, these folks have the resources to set up their current funds as well as estates when they die to use as they see fit...Wonder just how much the government actually gets...?
Thursday, February 15, 2001, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
Gates Sr. leads fight to preserve estate tax
seattletimes.nwsource.com
Article?zsection_id=268466359&text_only=0&slug=estate15m&document_id=1342676
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by Kevin Galvin
Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON - A group of wealthy Americans led by the father of Microsoft
co-founder Bill Gates has banded together to oppose President Bush's plan to
repeal the federal estate tax, echoing critics who say such a move would
disproportionately benefit the rich.
"Repealing the estate tax would enrich the heirs of America's millionaires
and billionaires while hurting families who struggle to make ends meet,"
says a petition circulated by William H. Gates Sr.
The petition is signed by George Soros, three Rockefellers, Ben & Jerry's
co-founder Ben Cohen and more than 100 others.
The declaration argues that the billions of dollars in federal revenue that
would be lost after repeal of the estate tax would "inevitably be made up
either by increasing taxes on those less able to pay" or by cutting such
programs as Social Security and Medicare.
"It's a tax that's good for this country," Gates said in an interview
yesterday. "It makes all kinds of sense to impose a substantial tax at the
time money moves from one generation to another."
Gates, a retired Seattle attorney and philanthropist, is working closely
with United for a Fair Economy, a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to
closing the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States.
The coalition plans to run ads in Sunday newspapers across the country
picturing a Rolls-Royce, noting that only 2 percent of Americans are
affected by the estate tax and posing the question, "Can you be wealthy and
have a conscience at the same time?"
Gates' involvement heightened attention on the issue in Washington state,
where several figures have had high-profile roles in the debate, including
Frank Blethen, publisher of The Seattle Times.
Blethen has worked closely with Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Bellevue, to lobby
Congress to eliminate the so-called death tax, the federal levy imposed on
an individual's net assets when he or she dies. Last year, the repeal passed
Congress but was vetoed by President Clinton.
Dunn said she is primarily concerned with the burden the tax places on
family farmers, small-business people and homeowners who have seen property
values skyrocket. "Don't put the burden on the shoulders of middle-income
people," Dunn said.
Blethen said yesterday that Gates and others opposed to the repeal "don't
understand the tax." Rather than leveling the economic playing field, he
said, it has destroyed small businesses, which have created most of the
country's new jobs. Heirs unable to pay the tax are often forced to sell
family businesses.
"This tax is one of the biggest reasons that the wealth gap has widened in
the last decade instead of narrowed," he said, noting that the repeal has
won support from many small-business associations in part because of "the
way it has destroyed minority- and female-owned businesses."
Gates, a retired partner at Preston Gates & Ellis, said he intended to
appeal directly to members of the state delegation to build opposition. He
is a member of one of Seattle's most prominent families, a member of the
University of Washington Board of Regents and co-chairman of the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, which doles out hundreds of millions of dollars to
nonprofit organizations.
Most of the delegation has already expressed support for repeal of the
estate tax.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, voted for the tax repeal last year but had
supported measures that would have taken smaller steps to revise the estate
tax. In the House delegation, only Democratic Reps. Norm Dicks and Jim
McDermott voted against overriding the Clinton veto.
President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax-cut package would eliminate the estate
tax by 2009 at a cost of $236 billion in federal revenue over 10 years.
Given that the repeal passed Congress last year and that a Republican now
controls the White House, its chances of success seem high.
What Gates and the like-minded millionaires and billionaires who signed the
petition are arguing is the benefit of periodic redistribution of wealth by
the government and the rejection of any sense of noblesse oblige in U.S.
society.
"We should make every effort we can to have this be a just society. It's a
prosperous one, but we're a long way from having a just society," Gates
said. "Having people live a life of enormous ease ... simply as a result of
the womb that they land in is not a good way for a country to go. We should
put everybody out on a field which is level."
Dunn, who last month reintroduced legislation to kill the estate tax,
dismissed such appeals as the protests of "folks who can afford to pay the
accountants to find the loopholes in the estate tax."
Estate taxes aren't imposed on net assets under $675,000. Above that amount,
assets are taxed at 37 percent up to $3 million, and then the rate jumps to
55 percent. Under current law, the exemption will rise to $1 million by
2006 - the level already set for farms and family businesses.
Many Democrats in Congress and the petition signers argue that the estate
tax can be revised to further protect farms and small businesses and
others - possibly by raising the exemption.
But Blethen said most discussion has been about raising the exemption to
between $2 million and $5 million - far below the level of assets of many
successful small businesses. The Seattle Times is a family-controlled
business, and its assets are valued at more than $400 million.
Opponents of the repeal argue that donations to charities would drop if the
tax were eliminated.
"The estate tax is really a small part of the process we use in this country
to iron out the inequities," said McDermott, Seattle's congressman, who
favors revising but not eliminating the tax.
Kevin Galvin can be reached in Washington, D.C., at 202-662-7455, by voice
mail at 206-464-8550 or by e-mail at kgalvin@seattletimes.com. |
