Make the Repeal of the Death Tax Permanent
The class warriors and peddlers of envy did not like the fact that Congress passed and President Bush signed a pro-growth tax cut late last month. Having lost that battle, they now want to make sure that the repeal of the death tax that was passed in 2001 is not made permanent.
Under current legislation, the estate tax is scheduled to be phased out by 2010, but then is fully reinstated in 2011. The class warriors say they want to “reform” the death tax, not repeal it.
Of course, this ignores that this is a destructive tax in economic terms. The death tax deters investment, destroys businesses, and restrains job creation. It also is grossly unfair, as taxes are paid on income, sales, property and most everything else in life, and then the government comes at death to tax total assets. The death tax is not based on any reasonable economic objective, but instead it merely utilizes envy to grab more revenues for government.
Death tax “reform” merely leaves a bad tax in effect to continue to do further damage.
One pro-death tax group is quite worried that Congress might place making the repeal of the death tax permanent on its summer agenda. Let’s hope so. That would be good news for investment, business and the economy.
Small business owners should contact their members of Congress, and let them know that they support permanently repealing the death tax.
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Raymond J. Keating is chief economist for the Small Business Survival Committee, and co-author of U.S. by the Numbers: Figuring What’s Left, Right, and Wrong with America State by State (Capital Books, 2000).
