I like USA Today for the sports section, but today’s editorial page has a piece by yours truly arguing (contrary to the statist position of USA Today) that the death tax shold be completely reprealed. While this tax is grossly immoral, my main points were about 1) the damage to economic growth because of reduced saving and investment, and 2) the loss of national competitiveness since other nation’s are getting rid of this absurd levy:
The politicians in Washington impose double taxation on interest, dividends and capital gains, but the “death tax” wins the prize for being the most self-destructive part of the internal revenue code. Adding an extra layer of tax when someone dies is an unsavory combination of bad economics and immoral grave robbing. …Economists warn that the death tax reduces the capital stock. That sounds like jargon, but it means all of us have lower living standards because of less investment, fewer machines, less technology and diminished innovation. Ironically, other nations have figured out that the death tax does a lot of damage in a competitive global economy. Many people will not be surprised to know that a free-market paradise such as Hong Kong has eliminated its death tax, but it is certainly newsworthy that European welfare states such as Austria and Sweden also have repealed this unfair tax. Australia, Russia and New Zealand are among the other nations that have figured out how senseless it is to penalize wealth creation.
But I also noted that we are going to conduct an interesting social-science experiment in 2010. How many investors, entrepreneurs, and business owners are willing to hasten their own death to protect their assets from the IRS grave robbers?
There may be a bit of good news on the horizon. Assuming Congress does not change the law, the death tax disappears in 2010. But since the death tax comes roaring back to life in 2011 (with an even higher tax rate of 55%), this creates a bit of a quandary. I’m sure the successful people affected by the death tax love their children, but how many of them are willing to jump off a bridge before the end of next year to keep the IRS from seizing the lion’s share of their wealth?
[…] notwithstanding predictably bad analysis from the OECD, it’s true for us peasants as […]
[…] notwithstanding predictably bad analysis from the OECD, it’s true for us peasants as […]
[…] I despise the death tax. It should be abolished. […]
[…] correct rate for the death tax is zero, so I’m glad the Trump family did everything possible to minimize the amount of money grabbed […]
[…] I’m not going to hold my breath, but it would be great news if congressional Republicans can kill the death tax. […]
[…] on Hillary’s grave-robber plan, as well as my own modest efforts to impact the overall debate in print and on […]
[…] if you’re subject to the death tax, they’ll want to know about everything you own. None of that would be necessary if we had a flat […]
[…] if you’re subject to the death tax, they’ll want to know about everything you own. None of that would be necessary if we had a […]
[…] the more serious point is that the death tax shouldn’t exist at all, as I’ve explained for USA Today. And in this CNBC debate, I argue that it is an immoral form of double […]
[…] the more serious point is that the death tax shouldn’t exist at all, as I’ve explained for USA Today. And in this CNBC debate, I argue that it is an immoral form of double […]
[…] the more serious point is that the death tax shouldn’t exist at all, as I’ve explained for USA Today. And in this CNBC debate, I argue that it is an immoral form of double […]
[…] the risk of stating the obvious, the correct death tax rate is zero, as I’ve explained for USA Today. Indeed, I also cited evidence from Australia and the United States about how people will take […]
[…] the risk of stating the obvious, the correct death tax rate is zero, as I’ve explained for USA Today. Indeed, I also cited evidence from Australia and the United States about how people will take […]
[…] the risk of stating the obvious, the correct death tax rate is zero, as I’ve explained for USA Today. Indeed, I also cited evidence from Australia and the United States about how people will take […]
[…] agreement reinstates a death tax. For all of this year, there has not been a punitive and immoral tax imposed on people simply because they die. So even though I listed the 35 percent death tax in the deal in the “good news” […]
[…] agreement reinstates a death tax. For all of this year, there has not been a punitive and immoral tax imposed on people simply because they die. So even though I listed the 35 percent death tax in the deal in the “good news” […]
[…] agreement reinstates a death tax. For all of this year, there has not been a punitive and immoral tax imposed on people simply because they die. So even though I listed the 35 percent death tax in the deal in the “good news” section of […]
[…] agreement reinstates a death tax. For all of this year, there has not been a punitive and immoral tax imposed on people simply because they die. So even though I listed the 35 percent death tax in the deal in the “good news” section of […]
[…] agreement reinstates a death tax. For all of this year, there has not been a punitive and immoral tax imposed on people simply because they die. So even though I listed the 35 percent death tax in the deal in the “good news” section of […]
[…] the economic damage caused by this perverse form of double taxation, and I highlighted a few of the nations around the world that have eliminated this odious tax in another column for the same […]
[…] the economic damage caused by this perverse form of double taxation, and I highlighted a few of the nations around the world that have eliminated this odious tax in another column for the same […]
[…] the economic damage caused by this perverse form of double taxation, and I highlighted a few of the nations around the world that have eliminated this odious tax in another column for the same […]
[…] the economic damage caused by this perverse form of double taxation, and I highlighted a few of the nations around the world that have eliminated this odious tax in another column for the same […]
[…] the economic damage caused by this perverse form of double taxation, and I highlighted a few of the nations around the world that have eliminated this odious tax in another column for the same […]
[…] along with observations from those who deal with wealthy taxpayers. The obvious lesson is that taxpayers don’t want the IRS to confiscate huge portions of what has been saved and invested over lifetimes of hard work. “You don’t know whether to […]
[…] along with observations from those who deal with wealthy taxpayers. The obvious lesson is that taxpayers don’t want the IRS to confiscate huge portions of what has been saved and invested over lifetimes of hard work. “You don’t know whether to […]
[…] along with observations from those who deal with wealthy taxpayers. The obvious lesson is that taxpayers don’t want the IRS to confiscate huge portions of what has been saved and invested over lifetimes of hard work. “You don’t know […]