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How does this help when generally only the poor don't have estate planning to escape these taxes?
by not_a_cop75 7y ago
How does this help when generally only the poor don't have estate planning to escape these taxes?
- arcticbull 7y agoA floor of $500K-1M indexed to inflation will ensure the poor don't have to plan their estates at all. These don't have to be hard questions.
- not_a_cop75 7y agoSo this generation, the upper middle class and higher will be affected, and next generation everyone above the extreme poor will be affected.
- arcticbull 7y agoI picked a totally arbitrary number. If we sat down for more than the 30s it took me to make this reasonable sounding number up, I'm sure we could find a satisfactory system :)
- not_a_cop75 7y agoAny satisfactory system will be alterable by (a) inflationary practices (b) those scheming to take advantage of loopholes in 10 or less years.
- arcticbull 7y agoUnless you (a) index it to inflation and (b) make an attempt to close loopholes, rather than surrendering at the starting line ^_^
- not_a_cop75 7y agoI like your optimism, but I've failed to witness a law that has never been twisted into some gross contorted display of what it was normally used for at least once.
- Forbo 7y agoSo long as the harm caused by those taking advantage of it is less than the good created by the change, it should still be put in place.
- not_a_cop75 7y agoTexas in so many ways scares me, but the fact that many of their laws have expirations actually makes sense.
- svachalek 7y agoThe poor don't have estates. When they die, they leave their families wondering how to pay for the funeral, not how to preserve their holdings for the next generation.
- ip26 7y agoThe estate tax exemption is $11M, so you do not pay any estate taxes if the wealth you leave behind is less than that. Do you know many poor people with more than $11M in wealth?
- dantheman 7y agoWhen you own a small business and some land your wealth may be over 11m but not liquid.
- ip26 7y agoI guess I've never thought of a landed businessman as poor.
- arcticbull 7y agoAnd of course there’s ways to solve this: tax the land at disposition. You don’t need to collect on the estate tax for land holdings as dollars at time of inheritance, you can just drop fractional ownership into a trust c/o the IRS and even retain right of first refusal if you should be able to pay it off in time. This is how the IRS already handles illiquid assets if an American chooses to expatriate: you get the choice to pay in cash or fractional ownership in trust.