# Romney: Let's get rid of estate taxes because dodging them is too much work and too pricey

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-lets-get-rid-of-estate-taxes-because-dodging-them-is-too-much-work-and-too-pricey/636030>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [September 27, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-lets-get-rid-of-estate-taxes-because-dodging-them-is-too-much-work-and-too-pricey/636030 "2012-09-27T15:35:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 8

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**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-lets-get-rid-of-estate-taxes-because-dodging-them-is-too-much-work-and-too-pricey/636030/8 "2012-09-27T16:58:46Z")

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> [@BobLibDem](#):
>
> When you use the phrase “death tax” I can’t take you seriously. It isn’t paid by the dead, it’s paid by the living who get a windfall.
> 
> Anyway, Romney makes a better case for closing the loopholes than he does for eliminating the estate tax. Give each heir say a million dollar exception but close all the dodges.

The problem is that unlike many schemes to avoid other taxes, most of the ways people avoid estate taxes can’t really be closed. What it comes down to is giving away your wealth before you die and doing it in a way that doesn’t incur other taxes along the way. How do you stop that entirely? $0 gift tax exclusion?

I don`t know much about people with hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe the ultra rich use schemes and loopholes that could be closed, but for people with several million it’s just not that hard with planning.

> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> If you have an estate large enough to pay federal estate taxes, you almost certainly already have a lawyer, because you are a millionaire. The first million dollars of your estate is exempt from the estate tax.

Whenever estate taxes come up I think back to Al Franken’s joke, that the Estate Tax is reprehensible because it places a terrible burden on society \*most \*productive members, the children of the extremely wealthy.

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