WP: The 1% Split Over Estate Taxes ("very rich" v. "merely rich")

[DeepModem Mom]

The 1% Split Over Estate Taxes
The Few at the Top of the Heap Disagree on How to Keep the Most

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 12, 2005; Page D01


The very rich and the merely rich are fighting over the fate of the estate tax.

So far, the very rich are winning.

Small-business owners -- the merely rich -- want to exempt from taxation inheritances of up to $10 million. The very rich -- people whose estates are worth tens of millions or even billions of dollars -- want instead to reduce the tax rate on assets passed on at death. A $10 million exemption isn't nearly enough for them.

To the pleasure of the very rich, the leading compromise in the Senate would drastically lower the top rate on inherited assets -- to 15 percent from 47 percent. But, to the chagrin of the merely rich, the exemption wouldn't come close to their demands.

Small businesses are irate. "We don't think that a compromise that leaves small business at the starting gate and takes care of the rich guys is a good thing," said Donald A. Danner, executive vice president of the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small-business owners....Representatives of the very rich are much happier but are also girding for battle. "The other side is painting our people as extraordinarily rich," said John J. Motley III, senior vice president of the Food Marketing Institute, which represents many family-owned supermarket chains. "We plan our lobbying to get more intense."

This elite conflict has serious implications for average citizens as well: a sharp reduction in the estate tax would deprive the federal government of tens of billions of tax dollars each year. "Wealthy people will get tax cuts they don't need at the expense of important public services like food stamps and health care," said Matthew W. Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal research group....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081102013.html

[Joanne98]

1. The haves and the have mores. Some call them the elite, I call them my

BASE>>>>BASE!!!!!!!!!!

[DeepModem Mom]

2. What a memory, Joanne! That's what the Shrub said, all right. nt

[brentspeak]

3. The name of the lawyer trying to repeal the tax: Aubrey A. Rothrock III

Somehow, I don't think this guy shops at the WalMarts whose family he's representing.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Sick.

Disgraceful.

Economic slavery.

[mongo]

5. There has to be some middle ground here that will protect small business

I know that 10 million sounds like a lot of dough, but if it is all tied up in assets that you need to run your business, you may not be that rich. It is very possible to look like you are that rich on paper and still be living a moderate life, with a moderate income.

10 million is probably too high, but the thing is that the truly super-rich have liquid assets that can be used to pay estate taxes. If there is NO exemption, it creates problems for small family business, that may be worth a million bucks on paper, but are scambling to make ends meet.

Forcing small business' to close to pay estate taxes only puts more money into the hands of the fewer.