I'm embarrassed to say that I lost it in the car wash in down-town Westport, CT today. It all started out very innocently.
I decided to buy some lip balm for $3.99, and handed Cash Register Dude $4. He then told me I needed to give him another $.23 cents for sales tax and made an anti-tax comment.
In my usual chipper way of handling anti-tax comments, I chirped, "Well, I like to have good roads and schools, so I don't mind paying."
Then Cash-Register Dude and the guy behind me start going into an anti-tax tirade, with Mr. Behind saying "and they make you pay taxes when you earn it and then when you die."
I then turned to Mr. Behind and said, "Look we have an enormous deficit and the money has to come from somewhere to pay it off, so if it comes between hard-working people having to pay more on what they earn, or rich kids paying additional taxes on money they didn't earn, I'm sorry but it's the rich kids that can pay, not me or my kids."
To which Mr. Behind said "but don't you care that its double taxation," (because he, of course had no better argument).
Now, let me tell you, in sizing up Mr. Behind (and the car he was driving) it was plainly obvious that the likelyhood of his kids having to pay estate taxes was slim to none.
The sheer stupidity of his argument and the unlikelyhood of his ever being impacted by estate taxes made me snap.
I turned to Mr. Behind and said, "I couldn't give a f##king, sh@t about any rich kid paying taxes again on money he didn't earn. Until this year you could exclude $5 million from your estate from taxes, so if you're a married couple that's $10 million you could pass on without taxes to you children, and if you have any kind of a competent estate attorney you could probably exlude an additional $5 to 10 million more. And this year, because there is no estate tax, we got billionaire kids in Texas inheriting billions without paying taxes while our country is mired in debt. So no, I don't give a sh@t that it's double taxation, as far as I'm concerned you can triple or quadruple tax them and I wouldn't care. The chances of my kids having to pay estate taxes are slim, but the chances of them having to pay additional income, sales and property taxes because of the enormous debt we have is real, and I don't want them paying any more because some poor rich kid thinks he's getting burned because he has to pay taxes on money he never earned."
At this point Cash Register dude went silent, and Mr. Behind's only response was "nice mouth."
Now, even I was embarrassed, thinking I overstepped boundaries, and I went out to my car and left.
But then I got to thinking that maybe both Cash Register Dude and Mr. Behind needed to hear what I said in the way I said it. They are obviously incapable of seeing that it's not in their own best interests to eliminate the estate tax.
They also fail to see that they are double taxed every time they pay sales taxes. You pay taxes on earning the money and then taxes on spending it, and, unlike property taxes, there is no corresponding Federal deduction for paying sales taxes. Why are there no freedom fighters out there fighting for end of double taxation on the middle and lower class while so many out there are willing to fight for the wealthy not being double taxed?
I find it amazing that Mr. Behind, driving his beaten up Toyota Camry is so concerned for the likes of Paris Hilton and the Koch heirs having to pay estate taxes when their parents die, while at the same time grousing about the sales, income and property taxes he has to pay. Does he really not make the connection that if Paris and the Koch heirs don't pay, he'll have to pay more?
We have over $1.7 trillion in federal debt. States have tremendous unfunded liabilities in their workers pension funds which eventually has to be paid off. We've been putting off the bad news for too long now, but the reality is that cutting budgets is not going to solve fully any of these budget problems. Eventually new forms of governmental revenue will have to be found.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that, under current law, federal revenues from estate and gift taxes will be $420 billion, or 1.2 percent of total revenues, over the 2010–2019 period. So, if we actually do eliminate the estate taxes, that's an additional $420 billion that will have to be raised.
Now, I know that the estate tax will never be eliminated. The truth of the matter is that the insurance industry will never let it happen. Insurers make a large percentage of their profits from products sold to avoid the estate tax. The insurance lobby was a major reason why the estate tax elimination was never made permanent when the GOP controlled the Federal government. The financial services industry was also dead set against elimination since they also make huge profits off of avoiding estte taxes. And, let's not forget all the estate lawyers racking up large bills to help their clients avoid estate taxes as well.
But it still pisses me off that Mr. Behind is so stupidly mouthing off the "it's double taxation" argument.
Maybe I shouldn't have used curse words, but then, I guess I'm just sick and tired with being constantly bombarded with stupidity.
BTW, in case you're wondering although I no longer practice, I was a tax attorney with an LL.M in Tax Law from NYU.