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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (33491)	3/8/2004 5:02:47 PM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793703

Talk about voodoo economics. I am looking for productive tax system that promotes growth.

To: michael97123 who wrote (33491)	3/8/2004 5:22:34 PM
From: aladin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793703

Mike, The estate tax is as stupid and destructive as the AMT. It was never effectively indexed to the economy. My uncle owns a business and works very hard for his income. However, his business and equipment would be valued north of 2 million if sold. So the dilemma is that for his son to inherit - he could pay as much as 1 million in tax if no exemptions existed and even with the current exemption environment - he would have to mortgage the business at a rate he may not be able to recover from operations. So it gets sold off for the land and the employees laid off. If we brought the value of the exemptions up enough to cover the general rise in the economy it would solve these issues. Going back in history - the exemption in 1916 was 5 million and the top rate was 10%. It was raised to 15% on estates over 10 million in 1917. It kept going up over the years - so 'soak the rich' seems to sell well. By 1981 - reform brought the top rate all the way back down to 50% and the exemption was only $600,000! John