Voter____ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans
> believe preventing the estate tax from rising is a
> higher priority than preserving Bush era tax rates
> or unemployment benefits. How many people here
> agree with that sentiment?
>
>
> President Obama and Congressional Democrats don't
> think this is a high priority, but voters do. A
> November Gallup Poll found that Americans think
> that keeping the estate tax "from increasingly
> significantly" is "very important" by 56% to 17%
> "not too important." That's more than think it is
> a priority to extend current tax rates (50%),
> extend jobless benefits (48%), ratify the Start
> treaty (40%) or let openly gay men and women serve
> in the military (32%).
>
>
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487038
> 14404576001591839952886.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Had a loved one die lately? You pay taxes all your life, and then when you die a large portion of your estate is absorbed by the State and Federal government. Rich folks get around this to some extent with trusts, but even then, the probate process will require the trust to pay out for lawyers fees and all sorts of other shit. Honestly, they need to do away with the death tax - it is ridiculous to pay taxes all your life, then when you die suddenly you have to pay taxes on what you managed to keep.
Unfortunately I have had to deal with a lot of this in recent years for various family members, and the folks who died were not rich by any means - yet the taxes and requirements to deal with all the estate issues were stupid, time consuming, and costly to everyone.
If you can’t model the past, where you know the answer pretty well, how can you model the future? - William Happer Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics Princeton University