They are not. Estate taxes are way too complex and provide too many loopholes. Tax any penny that anyone comes into possession, whether natural person or entity. The moment the money is passed to a natural person or any type of entity, religious or philanthropic or not, it gets taxed. Drop this entire crappy estate tax law.
Does not work for the rich and the 98% dummies are too blatantly stupid to speak up and revolt. So the top 1% get their wish granted and the other 1% politicians and bureaucrats get their own rewards for towing the line of the lobbyists.
They will never tax the billionaires at their tax brackets. It should be apparent to everyone that the same politicians talking about taxing the billionaires will write all sorts of tax loopholes for their extreme liberal billionaire buddies. Of course, they get tens of millions of campaign cash in turn. That has been the game for so long now. So, who ends up paying? If you have a salaried job, you are it. Not only can you not shield enough of your incomes but, the IRS tax code is written to make sure you pay. And don't believe the lie that you will not be among those whose taxes go up. All the IRS needs to do, is adjust their tax tables and voila, your taxes have gone up. Those making $100,000 and up without any tax loopholes will take the brunt of the tax hikes. There is no place to hide so, just pay your taxes. You vote for these same corrupt politicians repeatedly so, you are getting your just desserts. Just like the Keystone pipeline union members who overwhelmingly, voted for Joe Biden when he already told them he would end fossil fuels and shift to green energy pretty much. The dumb idiots never learn.
You think the billionaires will give up their tax loopholes? Not going to happen. A flat tax will force them to pay a fixed amount of their incomes. A lot of them do not even pay that 15% tax rate. Remember when Rachel Maddow got ahold of President Donald Trump's tax return for one year? He paid $23,000,000 if I recall correctly, from that article I read. Now, blowhard Warren Buffett, holding court with his media sycophants showed one of his tax returns and paid even less than that amount. Research it. I do not recall how much Buffett paid but, he was already like 6 times as rich as Trump yet, he paid even less? Now, the dummies should be outraged but, they all worship at the altar of Warren Buffet.
Here I found an article for those thinking they can tax the rich billionaires. Try harder fools. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/08/bez...berg-icahn-and-soros-pay-little-in-taxes.html
As I quoted above, Americans are not healthy. Obesity causes a lot of otherwise easily preventable health costs placing a greater burden on any health care system. Will change the incentive structure resulting in lower productivity. People work harder for their own families than strangers. A lot of people would simply retire instead of working longer to pass on a bigger inheritance to their children. (Politically they could not pass a law to tax all inheritance...there would be some amount that can be passed on without taxation otherwise too many people would be pissed off...same reason why a 1% tax for homeless on all income would never pass even in a liberal city. Best way to get rid of a bad law is to strictly enforce it.) It also would mess up a lot of family farms that have existed for multiple generations. And like all overly burdensome taxes, people will invest more energy in evading the tax than becoming more productive. For example, today, anyone could put a substantial amount of money into Bitcoin, transfer the money to a private wallet, hand the keys to his grand children and the government would not be able to access it or know who has access to it. Could do something similar with gold or other valuables.
an increase in taxes in any form for anyone is bad. The political class essentially robs the working class at gun point...then turns around and enriches themselves via foreign aid embezzlement for example. some are even so bold as to sell our country's valuable resources to foreign interests only to receive $145 million "donation" to their "foundation". Its fucked.
Interesting article to read on taxing based on net value. https://taxfoundation.org/wealth-ta...tion (and Repeal) of Wealth Taxes in the OECD
Give up? Of course not. Nobody gives anything up what benefits him, at least not 99.5% of society. That's why we need to force them by a majority of society. We had this opportunity to vote the one single honest soul in politics in. There is one single honest guy who really believes what he says and lives by it day in day out. That guy is Bernie Sanders. In my book not a single other senator or congressman or president comes even close to his love and support for the middle class. Nobody. All others are lying through and through in pure subservience to their self interests.
it's not about how much money we can squeeze out of the rich (there's a limit for this type of things. the pot size is not unlimited). Revenue creation is a way for generating wealth in a society such as new job creation, new businesses, reducing burdens on businesses, or reducing the cost of doing business. Nowadays, we're competing not only with other countries, but also with machines, computers, and efficiency.