kakki wrote: > I have heard of farm families in > California who would be put out of business by it. A $1 or $2 million > estate is California where property values are through the roof, is > probably comparable in some instances to a $150,000 "estate" in Wisconsin. > Farm families in Wisconsin may never be affected by it, but in California it > is all relative - their farm would effectively be confiscated and they would > end up with nothing. On the philosophical side, it is fair or equitable to > tax an asset that was acquired with money that had already been taxed > before?
Kakki, an "estate" in Wisconsin is liable to be "cute" to the Californian in a $1 or $2 million home, but the Wisconsin "estate" is liable to be worth more. And of course, for the $1 or $2 million California "estate" and the Wisconsin farm, neither will be affected by estate tax given the marital deductions and the slightest financial planning, or for a single person, the regular exemption and slightly more financial planning. To put "estate" in quotation marks and dismiss Wisconsin farmers was not intentional, but as a rural midwesterner - Wisconsin is just Michigan on the wrong side of the lake - it comes across wrong, condescending, in a way that I know that you did not mean at all. But calculate what 120-160 acres of farm land is worth, for a small farm, the house, farm and out buildings, a few $100,000 combines, tractors, etc., [have you priced an end-loader lately? :-) ] plus the value of the business, other equipment.. it adds up. I know you didn't mean it that way. And yes, philosophically, very fair. That is why it was a part of the philosophy of the founding fathers of this country, who were determined to prevent an aristocracy from developing in this country. The transfer of tax from one generation is fair game for taxation - since this happens among the very rich - a hell of a lot more than say, sales tax on medicine and food for the poor, or any type of income taxation on the poor or working class. The rich want all the benefits of this country and don't want to pay for it. If they don't want to support this country, let them leave it and go off shore... oh wait, that is already being done as a tax dodge. :-) Vince
