....that makes me feel NO BETTER at all!
OK, we will tax you now while you are still alive.
I support the estate tax. Already we have a big problem in the US with declining class mobility. I think of it as the Paris Hilton tax.
....that makes me feel NO BETTER at all!
And how much of Warren Buffet's estate is going to go to the government as estate tax. Has Warren outlined that yet?
Are you a politician? You sure sound like one.
He did not write any cheque. He pledged up to $30 B but only advances funds when the cause needs the cash. At the rate that his wealth continues to grow, he may never have to touch the principal. (Although the principal is pledged, and he just continues to manage it as a trust..)not much after he wrote that $30 BILLION check to Bill Gates and his foundation
Hamlet, I have less of a problem with it at ~ 35%. One of the issues I have is the 50% rate. And my biggest problem with that is that it fosters non-compliance - loopholes, expensive strategies, etc. Which defeats the entire purpose of it. The very rich can afford the expensive planning to circumvent it, the moderately wealthy cannot. Actually turns the whole thing on it's head.
Stupid taxes.
-ERD50
Remember that equities are deemed disposed on death so the capital gains tax will have to be paid as well. Even at the 45% current estate tax, and the reduced 15% cap gains, the marginal tax rate on any gains would be over 53%.
I didn't know that. What happened to the "step up in cost basis" rule on inherited property for heirs?
Why are these redistribution of wealth comments always country specific? Aren't we all 'brothers and sisters' worldwide? Do artificial borders mean anything to our collective conscience?
What is the average 'wealth' worldwide? I don't know the number, probably needs to be adjusted for purchasing power, but I wonder how supportive of wealth redistribution some people would be if it meant taking their life savings and redistributing it equally to the entire world.
Again, I don't know the numbers, but something tells me that any FIRE'd person in the USA has far more wealth than the average person in the world - add in all those people starving in Africa, etc.
Aren't we all 'Paris Hilton's' compared to millions (billions?) of people in the world? Shouldn't we ALL have our wealth re-distributed? If not, these comments always strike me as 'holier than thou'.
-ERD50
my biggest problem with that is that it fosters non-compliance - loopholes, expensive strategies, etc. -ERD50
Well, we don't have a world government, we can only influence our own. So I support an estate tax.
And you have to draw lines. That is reality.
But I do support foreign aid, provided it isn't all ripped off by those in power.
Yes, I am selfish too. I retired early rather than working to support my extended family, friends, country and world. I even suffer some guilt over that. But I still support an estate tax which most assuredly my estate will pay. Unless I give it all away to charity. Then there will not be an estate tax.
No different than from other taxes.
Oh yes. Think about online purchases. And businesses are always trying to find sales tax exemptions. Our state's sales tax law is sprinkled with special interest exemptions.
I do think that if we are going to have an estate tax , that it should be with a fairly high exemption to allow for personal circumstances (passing on a business, care for a disabled child - what does a lifetime of care cost?, etc), and at a fairly low rate. If you are going to say that trusts can be set up to accomplish some of this, isn't that where all the loopholes come from? A high exemption and a low rate would help avoid loopholes and increase compliance.
-ERD50
He did not write any cheque. He pledged up to $30 B but only advances funds when the cause needs the cash. At the rate that his wealth continues to grow, he may never have to touch the principal. (Although the principal is pledged, and he just continues to manage it as a trust..)
The hypocrisy of Warren Buffett is - why didn't he just leave all his money to the gov't if he thinks estate taxes are a good thing?
So it is good for everyone else with a > $1M estate, but he would rather direct how his money is used, and name his children as administrators?
Which begs the next question: If Warren thinks private charities do a better job with the money than the gov't, why shouldn't we ALL direct more money to private charities, and eliminate some govt social programs?
Which begs the next question: If Warren thinks private charities do a better job with the money than the gov't, why shouldn't we ALL direct more money to private charities, and eliminate some govt social programs?
The hypocrisy of Warren Buffett is - why didn't he just leave all his money to the gov't if he thinks estate taxes are a good thing?
So it is good for everyone else with a > $1M estate, but he would rather direct how his money is used, and name his children as administrators?
I don't speak for Buffett, but I imagine that his preferred use of estate money would be: Private Charity > Government > Useless heir
The estate tax creates an incentive to give money to charity instead of leaving massive amounts to children who's only qualification for managing that wealth is coming out of the right womb.
Frankly, I think he's right. It is foolish for a billionaire to leave that money to their children. The children are unlikely to make good use of that money, unless the billionaire is very good at driving home the values that created that wealth. The old saying "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" has a strong basis.