Taxing the dead

Congress wants you to keep paying taxes even after you're dead. Instead of allowing the federal estate tax to expire on schedule next year the House voted 225 - 200 today to impose a permanent death tax of 45%. The measure now moves to the Senate, where prospects are uncertain, because some Senators want the death tax rate to be even higher.

The death tax is the most burdensome and unfair tax there is. You work hard your whole life, pay your taxes every year but still manage to save a few bucks for your kids, and then when you die Nancy Pelosi swoops in to snatch it away from them.

"Death should not be a taxable event," said Rep. Dave Camp (Mich.), the top Republican on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. "Death should not force the sale of family farms or the dissolution of small businesses. The fear of death should not be a reason for Americans to hire a battery of accountants and lawyers to find legal ways to reduce the bite of the estate tax."

Amen brother!

The death tax is class warfare pure and simple. It's a way for the people who vote for a living to "get even" with those of us who work for a living. It's the embodiment of the Robin Hood philosophy, born of the fallacious belief that "the rich" are a bottomless well of free money.

The taxman has his chance to exact his pound of flesh while we're alive. Once we die we should be able to rest in peace. We don't know for sure if there is life after death. But if the democrats get their way we will surely know that taxes after death are all too real.

Posted at 17:13 by Chris Wysocki   []   Comments | Perm Link |
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