It's Wrong!

Some Numbers

The Farm Argument

The Small Business Argument

Reasons Charitable Organizations Should Not Be Afraid of the Elimination of the Death Tax

It is the wrong tax

 It collects just one percent of the nation's revenues, and dollar for dollar, it costs as much to collect Death Taxes as it raises.

It comes at the wrong time

A core principle behind repealing the Death Tax is the idea that people should not be further burdened at the most difficult time of their lives.  Newt Gingrich has the best line: "You should not have to visit the undertaker and the taxman on the same day."

It hurts the wrong people

If you saved for the future, put away money for your children, built a small business, ran a family farm, or achieved the American Dream in other ways, the Death Tax punishes you.

It helps the wrong people

The only people who are helped by the estate tax are the army of fancy lawyers and expensive tax accountants - and IRS agents.

SOME NUMBERS

The value to Washington and the cost to the family

Americans are surprised to learn that the estate tax raises a little more than one percent of total Federal revenues and costs are of the same magnitude.  To personalize these stats, then add, "Though they account for only one percent of Federal revenues, estate taxes have forced the sale of thousands of farms, ranches, and businesses throughout this country, and we can only guess at the jobs and economic potential lost."

The jobs argument

Economists calculate that if the money paid in estate taxes in 1999 were to be invested, the total savings in 2010 would be $1.7 trillion higher, the economy would be $137.2 billion larger, and we would have 275,000 more jobs.

THE FARM ARGUMENT

"Imagine owning a family farm that you have worked for 30 years.  You have built and developed the land with the hope of passing it along to your children so that they may have a better life.  But after your death, your children tragically find that the farm will not be staying in the family.  This is not a rare occurrence.  Many family farms must be sold off to pay the Federal taxes due on the property.  It's just plain wrong."
 
"Death taxes hits the family farmer particularly hard, who may be cash poor but are tradition rich.  The value of their farms is not in the IRS valuation of their equipment and land, but in the farm's ability to produce.  Farmers make their living growing food and fiber, not speculating in land and equipment."

 
 THE SMALL BUSINESS ARGUMENT
 
"Nothing penalizes the small business owner more than the Death Tax."
 
"It has been estimated that 70 percent of all businesses never make it past the first generation, while 87% do not make it past the second generation.  I believe the estate tax is responsible for much of this failure."

Charitable giving has increased each year, after inflation, for the past 40 years. Despite wide fluctuations in the levels of income tax, capital gains tax and estate tax rates. Even with the dire warnings that the reductions in marginal income tax rates that occurred in the mid-80s would decrease charitable giving, annual gifts by individuals rose by nearly 30% between 1982 and 1989.

When the top estate tax rate was reduced from 70% to 50% between 1981 and 1987, the dollar amount of annual bequests grew approximately 80.8% (adjusted for inflation) during this same period. There is simply no empirical evidence to suggest that charitable contributions will decline if there is no death tax.

Giving USA 2000 reflects that those who have more give a larger percent of their assets to charity. People that make more than $1 million dollars give twice as much, as a percentage of income, than those who make less.

If families and individuals do not have to pay 47% of their assets in estate taxes, they will have more to give to charity.