Just

in case anybody was wondering.

Myth 1: The estate tax is best characterized as the “death tax.”

Reality: Everybody dies, but only the richest 2 in 1,000 estates pay any estate tax.

Myth 2: The estate tax forces estates to turn over half of their assets to the government.

Reality: The few estates that pay any estate tax generally pay less than one-sixth of the value of the estate in tax.

Myth 3: Weakening the estate tax wouldn’t significantly worsen the deficit because the tax doesn’t raise much revenue.

Reality: Extending the temporary estate tax cut enacted in 2010 rather than restoring the 2009 rules would add billions of dollars to deficits.

Myth 4: The cost of complying with the estate tax nearly equals the amount of revenue the tax raises.

Reality: The costs of estate tax compliance are relatively modest and are consistent with the costs of complying with other taxes.

Myth 5: Many small, family-owned farms and businesses must be liquidated to pay estate taxes.

Reality: Only a handful of small, family-owned farms and businesses owe any estate tax at all, and virtually none would have to be liquidated to pay the tax.

Myth 6: The estate tax constitutes “double taxation” because it applies to assets that already have been taxed once as income.

Reality: Large estates consist to a large degree of “unrealized” capital gains that have never been taxed; the estate tax is the only means of taxing this income.

Myth 7: If policymakers decide to retain the estate tax, the logical top rate would be 15 percent, the same as the capital gains rate.

Reality: To match the effective tax rate on capital gains, the top estate tax rate would need to be about 45 percent.

Myth 8: Eliminating the estate tax would encourage people to save and thereby make more capital available for investment.

Reality: Eliminating the estate tax would not substantially affect private saving, and it would greatly increase government dissaving (i.e., deficits); as a result, it would more likely reduce the capital available for investment than increase it.

Myth 9: The estate tax unfairly punishes success.

Reality: The estate tax affects only those most able to pay, and the funds it raises help support a range of programs that benefit the nation.

Myth 10: The United States taxes estates more heavily than do other countries.

Reality: Measured as a share of the economy, U.S. estate tax revenues are below the international average for taxes on wealth.

"The federal estate tax doesn’t affect the middle class—it applies only to the very wealthiest taxpayers. The IRS data show that only 0.7 percent— less than one percent — of deaths in 2007 resulted in estate tax liability in 2008. [Citizens for Tax Justice]

In 2009, any estate worth less than $3.5 million (or $7 million per couple) was passed on to heirs and heiresses estate-tax free. In fact, fewer than one of every 3,000 estates is subject to the tax. And this year (2010) the estate tax is repealed, before returning to pre-Bush tax rates in 2011. [CBPP]

The idea that the estate tax hurts farmers and small businesses is a myth. The Congressional Budget Office found that the estate tax threatens almost no farmers or small businesspeople [CBO]. In fact, the American Farm Bureau Federation has never cited a single example of a farm having to be sold to pay estate taxes [The New York Times].

America’s wealthiest families lobbied hard to abolish the estate tax. The campaign to repeal the federal estate tax was financed by 18 of the richest families in America—including 23 billionaires—who spent nearly $500 million to enact this special interest legislation. That’s because these families, which include the heirs of fortunes from Wal-Mart, Campbell’s soup, and Mars candy, stand to reap over $70 billion from the estate tax’s repeal [Public Citizen]."

The only people who are ever going to be affected by the estate tax are those who could most afford it. Getting poor people all riled up about taxes they will never have to pay is a ruse designed to help out the already immensely wealthy.

10 Myths About the Estate Tax

Taxes myths and realities

Heres the thing.

I'm not getting paid or making any money by sharing any of this.

In fact? 

Of everyone I know? 

I probably will have the highest likelihood of having to pay the estate tax someday.

So why be for it Drew?

Because it's morally correct.

It's immoral for wealth on paper (stocks and bonds) to be taxed at a lower rate 

than that of laboring to earn money. 

Whether that labor is physical or mental it makes no difference.

People make more money by owning a piece of paper than those who break their backs, ruin their bodies, etc., and we gotta wonder why the work ethic has went to shit in this country?

Again.

I have no agenda here.

I'd pay it.

Gladly.

I'll be gone anyway, what do I care?