keegs
Recycles dryer sheets
That makes it OK?
I could make a long list of crimes that affect very few people, should we decriminalize those crimes?
For 2007,
United States Crime Rates 1960 - 2009
16,929 murders in the United States.
How many people pay the estate tax?
14,700 estates had to pay any estate tax at all.
Murder, estate tax, they only affect a small percentage, it's OK.
Add me to the list waiting for your reply.
-ERD50
Morning ERD,
Per the policy center piece you posted: In 2007 when the estate tax was 18% - 46% on estates exceeding $2 million, 14.7k estates paid a tax. This year the tax is 0%.
The NYT OP/ED indicates that Democrats are looking to have the tax apply to estates that exceed $3.5 million for individuals and $7 million for married couples after the tax cuts expire next year.
Now you should check me on this but my understanding is that if you died today or two years ago, or in ten years, your wife would be excluded from any tax liabilty on your shared estate. If you both died in a car crash two years from now, under the Democrat's proposal in the Times piece, your estate would pay a tax on amounts exceeding $7 million.
I have no inheritance in my future to be concerned with nor do I have an accountant or lawyer that could advise me about estate insurance vehicles or sheltered trusts or gifts or offshore tax accounts, but I'm sure, given the relatively small number of estates paying this tax, many if not most who face it do and will find ways around it.
The real point of the NYT editorial opinion though as I read it is that 2011 essentially provides us with a chance at a do-over of the Bush tax cuts. With the huge debt we've accumulated through off budget wars and tax cuts, and with the enormous SS and Medicare liabilites we face in future, will congress pay for whatever it is they decide this time or will we hear more about Art Laffer's curve?