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July 25th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda 
In 2013, the death tax will revert to its antiquated, pre-2001 form. ~ Blake Seitz
Current Law
The 2001 tax relief bill (EGTRRA), drastically reduced the impact of
the death tax over the course of a decade, so that it was eliminated
entirely for one year in 2010 — a good year to die, joked a number of
pundits.
The bill lowered marginal rates and increased the applicable
exclusion amount, but it also included a provision allowing individuals
to carry over exclusion dollars that were unused by their spouse at the
time of his or her death.
This “portability” measure effectively
increased the applicable exclusion for many households, in some
instances putting millions of dollars beyond the reach of the federal
government.
The death tax rose from the grave at the end of 2010, with a Bush-era
top rate of 35% and an applicable exclusion amount of $5 million ($5.12
million in 2012).
Scheduled Changes
In 2013, the death tax will revert to its antiquated, pre-2001 form.
The applicable exclusion amount will plummet to $1,000,000, and the top
marginal rate will leap twenty points to 55%!
A 5% surtax will also
return, to be levied on estates between $10 million and $17 million.
This raises the top effective rate of the death tax to 60%!
ATRF Analysis
According to research
by the Tax Policy Center, if the current death tax expires, then the
resulting, stricter exemption threshold will force 114,600 estates to
file for the tax in 2013 — this represents a 13-fold increase from the
previous year’s 8,800 estates, and countless wasted hours filling out
tax paperwork!
Of that cohort, an unfortunate 52,500 will be liable for
the tax, way up from 3,300.
While those 52,500 taxpayers only represent 2% of those who die each
year, no one should be fooled into thinking that the effects of this tax
fall only on the proverbial “one percent.”
The economic incidence of
the death tax is far broader, because it causes many wealthy individuals
to save less, choosing instead to retire early or, as Milton Friedman put it,
“dissipate their wealth on high living.”
This reduction in savings
means a concomitant reduction in investment, lessening the flow of
capital to businesses and organizations where countless ordinary
Americans are employed.
Additionally, use of estate planning lawyers, life insurance trusts,
and inter vivos gifting (all common practice in upper-income circles)
allows many wealthy individuals to minimize their estate liability, so
that the death tax ends up harming only those who could not or chose not
to navigate a maze of legal loopholes.
The ills of a 55% death tax are not just speculative.
Prior to 2001, when the death tax stood at 55%, a 1994 study
by the Tax Foundation found that a 55% estate tax “has roughly the same
effect on entrepreneurial incentives as a doubling of income tax
rates.”
The same death tax today, then, would have similar
decision-distorting economic effects as an 80% income tax on affected
parties.
A 1992 study
that was generally pro-redistribution piled on, finding that the
paperwork and compliance costs of the estate tax largely cancelled out
any revenue raised from the tax.
This consistent finding — that the death tax is effectively revenue neutral,
and is a net economic drain — exposes the class warfare aims of death
tax advocates.
The other reasons listed merely reinforce the point: that
the death tax increase should be vigorously opposed!
10 Year Cost to Taxpayers
Congressional Budget Office: $516 billion
Blake Seitz – July 18, 2012 – AmericansForTaxReform
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