Discussion»Questions»Finance» If you're considered to be "middle-class" you will never have to worry about estate taxes. Why are pols selling the lie that you will?
Your question is very very telling about the mentality of the left. The left pretend to be about society but they're just completely selfish. Your question very clearly shows that you vote based on what you believe effects you personally, with no regard for justice.
It doesn't matter whether I will pay estate taxes or not. They are unjust, so they shouldn't exist. I don't care whether their abolition benefits me, harms me or has no effect on me.
Higher taxes on the rich, have a suppressive effect on the economy. That will make us poorer either directly or indirectly. People can be forgiven if they lack the intellect to see that, but there is no excuse for having no sense of justice.
This post was edited by Zeitgeist at November 5, 2017 4:15 AM MST
How much is your and your husband's house worth? How much is the "base" of you and your husband's retirement savings plans? Those numbers could easily add up to more than enough to put you in the crosshairs for estate taxes. (And let's not even think about self-employed people like farmers.
But after having said all that what gives any government the right to basically steal from people just because they've worked hard and managed to accumulate some savings to pass on to their families? Is it because you think that you're going to get some kind of handout from that theft?
Interesting---the first of two responses involves a value judgment---which is an opinion and may or not rise to the status of "fact;" and the second points out that you may be worth more than $5,490,000.00 when you die---something which apparently typically will come as a complete surprise to those of us "accidental" millionaires..
These are the latest complete figures I could find online:
The estate tax raised $8.5 billion in 2012 — less than 1% of the $1.2 trillion inherited that year.
Only 1 out of every 700 deaths results in paying the federal estate tax today. The vast majority of estates — 99.9% — do not pay federal estate taxes.
While the top estate tax rate is 40%, the average tax rate paid is just 17%.
The estate tax is only paid on assets greater than $5.3 million per individual ($10.6 million per couple). Even billionaires pay nothing on the first $5.3 million left to their heirs.
Only 20 small business and family farm estates nationwide will owe any estate tax in 2013.
Your statistics are irrelevant. If you accept the principle that the government can justly tax money that has already been taxed once already and make your children poorer, you have the mind of a slave. It doesn't matter how the low the rate is, or how few people pay. Once you accept the principle of it, it will incrementally grow like cancer until everyone pays, just like income taxes did. Ultimately the far left will abolish inheritance altogether if given the chance. It's a slippery slope.
This post was edited by Zeitgeist at November 5, 2017 4:15 AM MST
No, not all political opinions are value judgments---some are based on facts.
And those statistics are hardly irrelevant---why not use them to gain what I think is accurately described as some badly needed insight into reality?
And just because there is a possibility of error in one direction when a principle is implemented does not mean there is no error in the opposite direction.
You deceive yourself. No one has political opinions based on facts alone.
Most of the time people can't agree on what facts are because of value judgments about the trustworthiness of sources etc. Even when all sides agree that something is a fact, value judgments are everything when interpreting that fact.
Facts are also often misleading because on their own they lack perspective. For example, take the statement "Taking cocaine makes people feel ecstatically happy." This is a biological fact. Though it's also arguably false in a general sense since, while it makes a person happy in the moment, it doesn't lead to long term happiness.
In order to have perspective we need all the facts not just some of them. We virtually never have all the facts. Even when we do it's a very complex value judgment to weight all the facts correctly to create a proper perspective.
This post was edited by Zeitgeist at November 5, 2017 4:15 AM MST
EVERYTHING in life has a value at any given time. It's the way the world works, something that you apparently don't know, or don't want to know.
You've already made your value judgment on the estate tax. Now you're just trying to make a sales pitch for that form of legalized theft. You're basically using twisted statistics of a dubious nature/source to justify the estate tax. But your pitch is basically that really old closer "do you want to pay for this with MasterCard or with VISA" question. That's a question designed to set a person's mind along the "we have to pay this" by providing two choices to pay, no choice to say no, which is the correct choice.
Thank you for a very thoughtful, helpful and INFORMATIVE reply to my question tom. The link is especially helpful. I very much appreciate the attention and time you gave to answering my question so comprehensively. I WISH I had those worries for my children but alas,alack they will never have to pay inheritance taxes UNLESS Jim and I win the Lotto before we die! I'm not counting on it! Happy Friday m'dear! :)
US constitution Article 1 Section 9: "No capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken."
tom jackson 