The "death tax" is too funny, the Republican spinmasters named it that so that Alabama Joe Sixpack would think it's an awful idea and that it needs to go. Little does Alabama Joe Sixpack know that unless he's got $2M in assets his estate won't be taxed a penny when he dies. (Alabama Joe Sixpack doesn't know how to use "the internets" or "the google" to look up the info on the IRS website, so he lets Fox News tell him everything he needs to know). As for those family businesses, they can definitely be stung by it but a good estate plan can help minimize the effects. How many people in the US even die with a $2M estate? It is so funny that people will vote to get rid of it when all they've got is $50K in their 401K. And of course some of the world's richest men are big supporters of the estate tax.
I disagree, especially if you live in california.
Take your SFH. That itself for is $1million (ok maybe $700k after the decline). Then figure if you're smart you have a $500k life insurance policy for you and another for your spouse. That's $2million. right there. Add in your 401k over your lifetime and your wife's lifetime, how hard is it to really exceed this amount before you are 60? Also, $2million in tomorrow's dollar will be worthless..more like $200k in today's dollars. A lot of you "average" joe's aren't really that below average.The really rich always have loopholes, so this death tax doesn't really matter to them. Yeah, sure you can setup the entire A and B trust thing to get around the $2.5 million. But let's face it, $1million isn't really a lot of money these days.
The other way I look at it, for those that think th inheritance is "unfair". Your kids don't deserve an inheritance any less than any of you that were "lucky" to be born with a U.S. citizenship. So I find it hypocritical that the same folks that think an estate inheritance is unfair but at the same time want to crack down on immigrants. If your heirs are really that stupid and lose everything you give to them, that's their stupidity. But I earned this money. I already paid taxes on this money. And I'll be damned if te government tells me what I can do with it upon my death.
