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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (42523)	2/22/2001 4:28:50 PM
From: BWAC	Respond to of 70976

Ot) Estate taxes Interesting discussion. From an individual standpont estate taxes are bad, from a socioeconomic standpoint they are good as they redistribute the wealth in some form. What is bad is the current exemption. It is way too low. It needs to be $5 Million or more. Maybe $10 Million. Unfortunately people don't like to do estate planning, put it off, or just don't know anything about it. Most relatively small estates can and could avoid taxation if they got busy early on in life and took advantage of all the planning tools available.

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (42523)	2/22/2001 5:08:37 PM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Jacob-- Years ago, I had dinner with an economist who's doctoral dissertation was on the impact of a 100% inheritance tax. Contrary to some of the posts, the impact was to stimulate the economy. !) The very rich would be forced to distribute their money to people who have lower marginal propensity-to-save curves--usually the heirs, which is a stimulus, 2) or give it away to charities or whatever, which again become more of an economic stimulus, or 3) pay it all in taxes--which obviously has a positive effect. Now, for personal reasons there is legitimate dispute about what we own. However, the current exemption of $1.2 million seems fair to me. I can't help but read those wanting to raise it to $5 million, as they own $4.5 million. However, the economic impact of the 100% inheritance tax is a stimulus. I, personally, would rather see 100% than zero inheritance tax to maintain the meritocracy. I do, however, prefer the current exception. fred

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (42523)	2/22/2001 8:54:48 PM
From: Jerome	Respond to of 70976

OT* Estate Taxes* A living subject. I find this all amusing. Has anyone ever heard of a dead person being revived and complaining about estate taxes? From the oriental perspective, has any re-incarnated person ever mentioned estate taxes. Has any ghost ever mentioned estate taxes. Does any viewer of these threads think that when they cross the great divide that estate taxes will really matter. Have you ever sat at the deathwatch of a person (I have many times) where estate taxes were ever mentioned. Do you really believe that once you are DEAD, that you really own something, or that you are going to care about what you left behind? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then you are missing the BIG PICTURE. Jerome