🚀 go-pugleaf

In ca.general Jim Riley <jimrtex@pipeline.com> wrote:
: On Mon, 4 Sep 2000 00:55:42 +0200, "Steve Slatin"
: <sslatin@attglobal.net> wrote:

:>In fact, much of the wealth in most large estates has NOT been taxed.
:>stock, which has appreciated.  The appreciated element has not been
:>taxed.

: But if the stock had been sold, its appreciation would have been
: taxed.  So whether or not it is also hit with an estate tax is
: arbitrary and capricious.

:>            If you buy land for $1000 an acre and two decades later sell it
:>for $20,000 an acre, it's profit and it's taxed.  If you hold it, no tax until
:>death.

: If you sell it the year before you die, it's taxed twice.  Arbitrary
: and capricious.

     ???   If you sell it the year before you die, it's no longer 
in the estate and your heirs are not taxed on it.

:>The other point is that your father's million is not taxed under estate
:>taxes.   There's an exemption that is escalating under current legislation that
:>puts the tax-free estate limit at over a million.

: An arbitrary and capricious amount.

     If you want to discuss the rate, exemption, and other details
of the tax, that is very much in order.  It's the idea that there
should be NO estate tax that I strongly disagree with.

:>Of course, the politicians grandstand all over this issue, and conceal the
:>facts -- which they know well.  Estate taxes only touch a percent or so of
:>all estates, 

: An arbitary and capricious level.

     Would you prefer that inheritances  be taxed like income to
the recipient?  I think that would represent a very large tax
increase...

:>and the average rate is way below the 55 percent figure even
:>for those -- they toss that around to frighten the ill-educated.

: The income tax rates have been nowhere 55% since the Reagan-era tax
: reforms.  What justification is there for taxing one $1 at that rate
: even if it is "income"?

     Tax rates, exemptions, deductions, etc. are always being
changed (usually due to lobbying).  It is the idea that ALL
estates should be exempt from ALL tax that I disagree with.