No double taxation. Don’t tax my estate just because I died. Don’t tax my business, then tax me again. Don’t tax me if I choose to give the money to whomever I please.
Tax all money once and only once, when it moves from someone/something that isn’t me into my pocket.
That could be a business giving me a salary check. It could be a friend giving me a gift check. It could be my parent’s estate giving me an inheritance check. It could be selling my interest in a business or equities or whatever. Treat it all the same. Tax it once, when it becomes income to me.
I’m also fine with the estate money staying in the estate untaxed. If I leave a large estate, and it hangs around, paying my child $xxx each year, that child just adds the $xxx to their income that gets taxed each year.
I could even live on that all my life and pass on control of my parents estate to my children. None of the money would get taxed until someone received it from the estate.
If my parents own a small business or a farm or whatever, and die and pass on ownership of that business or farm to me, fine, no taxes at all when they die and pass that business or farm to me.
I only get taxed when I pull an income or dividend or capital gain or whatever out of that business.
Whatever form it takes, it just gets added to my income and I pay the same income taxes that working stiffs pay on it.
Let me inject a dose of reality into the discussion. Jinx, according to their financial statements, the companies you mentioned payed the following in taxes last year:
Microsoft (MSFT): $6.253 billion
Exxon (XOM): $15.119 billion
Google (GOOG): $1.861 billion
And Rickjay already pointed out where these companies are incorporated.
My Dad inherited a little bit of $ when he was in his 40’s.
He taught himself how to invest wisely, and he did quite well with his little bit of inheritance.
He collected stock dividends, especially significant amounts in his latter years.
Dad also worked. He was a wage earner, not a business man. He was a mail carrier.
So, during my Dad’s time on Earth, he fell into all 3 of your categories.
Dad died, in his late 80’s, this fall.
He left an estate worth just above a million US $.
Dad was not an enemy of the working man just because he was smart, worked hard, paid for things instead of borrowing money, and managed to accumulate a fair amount of $.
He earned his wealth.
Your division of 3 types of people who make money by “inherit” “stock dividends” or"wages" is not based in the real world.
People, ordinary people, can do all three.
Dad’s generation did not spend a lot of time whining about what other people were doing.
They went to work, got down to business, and took self responsibility.
I’ve been beaten to the punch but I think I can simplify the explanation a little. A death tax is tax on the estate. When someone inherits, that inheritance becomes their income and is taxed as such. I think there should be a substantial annual allowance for each inheritor. Say the first $500K per year you inherit is free of tax; the rest is taxable. This way there is an incentive to spread the wealth around, rather than keep it concentrated.
See, IdahoMuleMan, this is why sensible people have a hard time taking conservatives seriously. You say that you’re all for people making their way through life by the sweat of their brow, and getting rich because they earned it through their own self-reliance, but you’re opposed to taxing people on wealth they gained just by sitting around and waiting, without doing anything at all to earn it? If conservatives really believed in the principles they claim, they’d want estate taxes to be a lot higher, and for government to be primarily supported by estate taxes.
And the whole business of “double taxation” is garbage. There’s no such thing as double taxation in this country. Not because it’s too many times to tax, but because it’s not enough: Near as I can figure, every dollar is taxed about 50 times, and that number will only increase as time goes on. Government can’t run without multiple taxation, and I don’t just mean you’d have small government, I mean you’d have Somalia.
Nope. The proposition is that you own what you make, and the government doesn’t get to claim it when you die. You get to pass it on to your heirs. It’s not about protecting the playboy heir’s ability to live the cushy life. It’s about protecting his parent’s ability to decide where the property they accumulated is going to go.
I was not speaking about what actually happens, but what “conservatives” think should happen. Many don’t think the government should be able to tax that transfer. But it’s not about protecting the kids’ right to get the loot and live like playboys. It’ s about the parents’ right to dole it out.
The problem is that it is not “exactly what an estate tax is”. An estate tax is tax on the money in the estate. The amount of tax is based on the amount in the estate.
SmartAlecCat was suggesting that the tax be paid by the recipient. The amount would then be based on the recipient’s tax circumstances.
Yes, but having them agree to that premise would destroy the victimization culture, and the rationale they have for expropriating their fellow citizens’ property.
That guy over there seems to have it pretty good.
He has it better than me.
The differences between him and me can’t be anything to do with me.
Therefore, I’m a victim. The world is unfair. The world is unfair to me.
Therefore, I vote for the guy who will use force to take from him, and give to me.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201002020005 The difference between statuatory and effective tax rate. America is far from the top actually behind China, japan, Germany and others.
As far as inheritance taxes, you are not double taxed. You are dead. The people who have not been exciting and great entrepreneurs will get the money. Why should they get it for free? What have they done to earn it? How has Paris Hilton earned a few billion dollars of hotel money ?
Oh yeah, she was born.
The highest taxes are on people who make the least amount of money. They pay the social security tax and their employer matches it. If the point of not taxing businesses (practically limitless deductions) is to encourage business, isn’t a good economy based on encouraging everybody to work? It’s amazing how few advocates the little guy has compared to business until you consider that only big business has a voice that is heard.
Would you listen to what you are saying? What have they done to earn it? What has the government done to earn it? Our wealth, and the wealth we pass on to our heirs, does not belong to the government by default. Your thinking is backwards.
Have you considered how a higher corporate tax affects the “little guy”? Lower wages and higher prices on necessary items. The corporate tax is a back door tax on the individual.
Nonsense! We will simply bring our fellow ciitzens to understand the inherent value of sharing. In some cases, this will require several months at the Jane Fonda Aerobics and Self-Criticism Camp.
Yes I have considered it, and it isn’t oppressing any living person more than real taxes oppress real living people. What you are saying is that taxes on the legal fiction of a corporation are heavier on real people than real taxes on real people. Your method inherently values fictitious people in the form of corporations greater than real people. What you have done is dehumanize humanity in favor of corporations because the three card monty of corporations has dazzled you. Don’t feel bad, it has dazzled most people. Corporations in their original form and intent were designed to do two things: raise capital and limit responsibility. Under the current tax system which considers virtually everything a business expense, they also avoid most taxes. In my view, real people should be allowed to deduct everything a corporation can deduct. Government exists to serve the needs of people, not for people to serve government so that corporations can flourish. People should flourish and enjoy the fruits of liberty. I don’t give a damn about the liberties of corporations, they aren’t people: they are liability limiting, capital raising and tax avoiding entities. That some of their activities please people, either directly or indirectly is utterly irrelevant. I don’t want to live in a country that values corporations above individuals.