Death tax kills jobs

The only things for certain are death and taxation. And the death tax includes them both.

Obama wants to reinstate the death tax at a rate of 45%.

But at a time when unemployment rates are climbing and we need to grow the economy, the death tax strikes most heavily at small- and medium-sized family-owned businesses that generate the majority of new American jobs.

You may recall the 2001 tax bill incorporated a 10-year phase-out that eliminates the tax only for a single year. Then the rate goes all the way back in 2011 to the confiscatory 55% rate of the Clinton era, with a mere $1 million exclusion.

It was designed to further tax the super-wealthy. The super wealthy have foundations and other tax dodges to shield themselves from much of the tax.

By contrast, "family-run firms and farms particularly feel the pinch of the estate tax, because they are less likely to have the liquid resources needed to meet their estate tax liabilities."

This lost capital reinvestment translates into fewer workers on business payrolls. One former Congressional Budget Office director, estimates in a new study that the economy would create roughly 1.3 million more small business jobs with no death tax rather than with a 45% rate.

Foreign governments understand this relationship, which is why they have been slashing their estate taxes in recent years. According to the American Council for Capital Formation, the U.S. has the third highest estate tax in the developed world -- 49% if you add the federal rate and average state rate, just below 50% in Japan and South Korea.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123180759988175649.html

For those of us who cut our teeth on Ann Rand, it’s worth a read: WSJ’s Stephen Moore’s opinion piece “Atlas Shrugged: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html