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> My understanding is this has been a very real problem for farmers for many generations, and they have been the largest opponents for estate taxes. Your unde

by dlp211 6y ago

> My understanding is this has been a very real problem for farmers for many generations, and they have been the largest opponents for estate taxes. Your understanding is a talking point created by the Republican party and has no real basis in reality. https://www.factcheck.org/2017/09/death-tax-talking-point-wont-die/ https://www.factcheck.org/2017/09/death-tax-talking-point-wo... https://www.cbpp.org/blog/the-myth-that-the-estate-tax-threatens-small-farms https://www.cbpp.org/blog/the-myth-that-the-estate-tax-threa... https://money.cnn.com/2017/10/10/news/economy/farmers-estate-tax/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2017/10/10/news/economy/farmers-estate... https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-taxes-farmers-estate-tax-family-farms-1116-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec... https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2001/04/09/debunking-the-myth-estate-tax-doesn-t-kill-family-farm/ https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2001/04/09/debunking-the-my... I will also point out that estates benefit from step-up basis which avoids Capital Gains taxes on unrealized gains, which is hugely beneficial to most estates. This way of taxing is meant as a compromise to allow fairly large estates to pass tax exempt --currently up to $11MM if held by a single person, $22MM for a married couple-- while applying taxes to estates that all but guarantee that you could retire instantly collecting an income that puts you in the top 1% of household earnings in the US with highly favorable capital gains tax treatment. Also, the IRS will work with anyone that has a large illiquid estate and allow taxes to be paid over a decade after an initial grace period, with an appropriate interest rate.

milesvp 6y ago
Yeah, you may be right about the republican talking point with farmers. I have no direct anecdotes with farmers, and with the one friend I have in the agriculture world, the topic never came up. The main anecdotes I have are with people who have estates that were big enough to have to worry about what would happen to their businesses when they died, since they couldn't just pass on the business to their heir. This is a hard problem even without the threat of a government wanting their cut, since companies don't have a tendency to survive their founders leaving. Also, make no mistake, I'm not trying to apologize for people who are already extremely wealthy, who have to deal with this problem. I would love to have the problem of what to do with a company big enough to need to sell it upon my death. I'm merely trying to point out, that estate taxes do have a consolidating effect that feeds mega corporations. What I don't know is if this effect is as big as I suspect it is, or if it's simply dwarfed by other factors, like the general desire to sell out for a big payday.
- dlp211 6y ago
  > The main anecdotes I have are with people who have estates that were big enough to have to worry about what would happen to their businesses when they died, since they couldn't just pass on the business to their heir. I'm sorry, but this is just the same talking point reframed. If you have a business that is large enough to be subject to estate taxes, you should have enough time and resources to talk to an estate attorney and learn how to move the assets into an appropriate corporate governance structure such that it is no longer a real issue.

by dlp211 6y ago

milesvp 6y ago

Yeah, you may be right about the republican talking point with farmers. I have no direct anecdotes with farmers, and with the one friend I have in the agriculture world, the topic never came up. The main anecdotes I have are with people who have estates that were big enough to have to worry about what would happen to their businesses when they died, since they couldn't just pass on the business to their heir. This is a hard problem even without the threat of a government wanting their cut, since companies don't have a tendency to survive their founders leaving. Also, make no mistake, I'm not trying to apologize for people who are already extremely wealthy, who have to deal with this problem. I would love to have the problem of what to do with a company big enough to need to sell it upon my death. I'm merely trying to point out, that estate taxes do have a consolidating effect that feeds mega corporations. What I don't know is if this effect is as big as I suspect it is, or if it's simply dwarfed by other factors, like the general desire to sell out for a big payday.

dlp211 6y ago
> The main anecdotes I have are with people who have estates that were big enough to have to worry about what would happen to their businesses when they died, since they couldn't just pass on the business to their heir. I'm sorry, but this is just the same talking point reframed. If you have a business that is large enough to be subject to estate taxes, you should have enough time and resources to talk to an estate attorney and learn how to move the assets into an appropriate corporate governance structure such that it is no longer a real issue.