This will be a short diary. I have been thinking about the estate tax after filling out my interactive NY Times budget, and choosing "1 million" (the lowest option available) as the floor for imposition of estate taxes. I find it interesting that in discussions of the estate tax, very few people talk about graduating increases in estate taxes in a way that is similar to the gradual increases in the amounts that incomes are taxed. And I wonder, "why don't we do that?" Why isn't the second $1 million (above the initial, tax-free $1 million) taxed at 25% (currently 0%, will reset to 55% next year), and the next $4 million taxed at 55%, and the next $8 million taxed at 65% and the next infinite million taxed at 75%? It would take awhile, but that is the surest way to redistribute the wealth that has been concentrated at the top of the (very pointy) pyramid. And who can most afford to pay taxes? That's right! Rich dead people.
The following is from an interview with Bill Gates:
"Planned Giving Today: "Death to the death tax" has become a kind of rallying cry for minority business and family farmers. Yet only a very small percentage of all estates are taxed. How do you explain this kind of populist outrage against a tax that affects so few people?
Gates: Well, I think the principal ingredient of that result is an enormously clever, long-term and persistent effort by those on the other side of this issue to create a public attitude. I credit it to an unbelievably successful public relations effort. The newspaper people have been highly organized, using the expression "death tax" and showing the poster children -- farmers or small business persons -- having lost a business or not being able to pass it along to their families because of the estate tax. The continuous pounding and presentation of those pieces of the case have been very effective. Unfortunately, those of us who feel otherwise never got on the field. I mean, the opposition was running up and down the field making touchdowns at will because there wasn't anybody doing any tackling on the other side."
http://www.pgtoday.com/...