I’m not a fan of being taxed on my earnings, taxed on my capital gains, and then taxed again on my estate, assuming there’s anything left by then. So you’d think that the richest people in the US would also be die hard advocates of repealing the estate tax, right?
Not necessarily. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and even Andrew Carnegie all support(ed) the estate tax. In fact, Gates’ father William H. Gates even wrote a book arguing why taxing estates is a good idea. If I may summarize so bluntly, their argument is essentially that if you’re fortunate as to be so wealthy, you have a duty to helping your community by giving back the extra wealth, either by way of this tax, or by giving away your estate through charitable donations and foundations, before you’re no longer around (in which case the estate tax serves as an incentive to do so). They point out that the Founding Fathers wanted to prevent aristocracies from being created and to always ensure a level playing field when they created this country.
Of course, not everyone is so altruistic. 18 of the country’s wealthiest families are also lobbying to repeal the estate tax, as might be expected.
***************************************************
Look Good at Work and Become Indispensable Become an Excel Pro and Impress Your Boss
***************************************************
Jason
Here’s the deal. Ya, people may feel that the wealthy may have an ‘obligation’ to give back to the community, doing so in the form of a bureaucratic tax is going to help any but the people who need it.
If people want to encourage reallocation of wealth, then it should be via the most efficient means – charitable contributions such as Warren Buffett has famously done.