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High inheritance taxes tend to single out individual proprietorship businesses for punishment. I remember when I was young, watching newly-widowed farm wives l
by dbcurtis 6y ago
High inheritance taxes tend to single out individual proprietorship businesses for punishment. I remember when I was young, watching newly-widowed farm wives lose everything to inheritance taxes. It was heartbreaking. The tax code changed so that stopped happening -- too late for some.
In the end, frequent tweaks to the inheritance tax code is just a full employment act for trust & estate lawyers.
What we need instead of our current convoluted taxation scheme is a progressive consumption tax -- but that is a rant for another day. (No, I don't mean a sales tax or a VAT. The government already gets all the data on your income and your total savings/investments. consumption = income - net_savings. Apply progressive table. Done.)
- dbcurtis 6y agoWow. My heart-felt anecdote offended somebody. Down-votes don't contribute to the debate.
- humanrebar 6y agoAlso, folks with enough money will find a way to spend it on kids and grandkids one way or another: primary residences, targeted endowments, donations to private clubs their families enjoy, businesses that will keep their ancestors gainfully employed indefinitely, and so on.
- JamesBarney 6y agoWhen was this? I don't remember there ever being an inheritance tax on property left to ones spouse.
- dbcurtis 6y ago1970's. The limit on what you could leave to a spouse was low enough that during a period of rapid inflation it got badly out of whack with farm land values. It caught main-street businesses, too.