Wednesday letters: GOP pushing estate tax myths

The widening gap between the rich and the rest of the population has been in the news quite a lot recently, with the average salaries of CEOs now at $11 million.

What is the Republican Congress’ answer to the problem? Do away with the estate tax, which Republicans like to refer to ominously as the “death tax.”

They like to argue that it is double taxation. It is not. The person who earned the money and paid tax on it is dead. The heirs who receive it, to whom it is a windfall, pay the taxes. If you want to make the double taxation argument, go after the sales tax. You have already paid income tax on the money you spend.

They also argue that businesses have to close down and farms are lost. I worked in the field of taxation from 1959 through 1980, and I never saw a family lose a farm or a business close down because of the tax. The tax code contains generous payment provisions when a cash-flow problem exists.

The current exemption exceeds $5 million, so less than 2 percent of the population is affected by the tax. But I would image that this group provides most of the campaign contributions. It is true that the tax makes up a small percent of the revenue collected, but that small percent will have to be made up somewhere else. Guess where?

West Columbia

This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 7:50 PM with the headline "Wednesday letters: GOP pushing estate tax myths."