(NOTE: We try to avoid being political here.....if you want to skip my commentary...just go to USA Today as they did a good job simplifying what is going on. The link is at the bottom of the post if you want to skip to it)
OK - we try to keep things on the happy side here. Part of that is avoiding sarcasm....
Ooopsie - failed to do that in the header for this posting
Bottom line - our government is working "so hard" on it's agenda (health care, financial reform) that it is forgetting something
Aren't we supposed to be dedicated to - "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"? As we stand, the government is HEAVILY incentivizing anyone with an estate of one million dollars or more to die this year.....
And there doesn't appear - to be anyone decked up a bill to change that.
If the estate tax goes back into effect - on Jan 1 of 2011, as it is now scheduled to do, the United States will have an estate tax that is DOUBLE that of any other country.
The thing you have to remember - is almost ALL of the money that gets inherited was already taxed one way or another.
So......- people spent their lives putting an estate together....paying their taxes along the way....at various tax rates of say 32-42%......with a dream of how they want their legacy to continue after they die.
And the government is going to take - 55% of any amount over 1 million dollars if the person dies Jan 1, 2011 versus Jan 1, 2010. In other words, the government is encouraging someone who has done everything right to die this year versus next.
Full disclosure - my parents are both deceased. I have no skin in this game. If things keep going status quo and the "death tax" is instituted, I would actually "win." The government gets more money to go toward the deficit and to fund other things that they take my tax money to pay for.
....but.....I just don't think a double tax - is right. It seems like excessive taxation is what our forefathers stood up and founded our nation upon.
Ever get incensed enough to write your congressman - well......I am thinking that, when the government makes it more beneficial to die this year than next, this may be as good a time as any.
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