What’s fair about an estate tax?

It’s here, it’s gone but you can bet it’s coming back. Originally designed to help pay for WWI, the estate tax (it was in place previously on a temporary basis), just won’t die as it should.      

Now the justification is that the wealthy need to pay their fair share. How many times have I heard that since January 2009?  What exactly is a fair share of ones life’s work and accumulated assets? Apparently some people think you should give 55% of it back to the government not withstanding taxes have been paid many times on that “wealth” during one’s lifetime.  Our income tax is already derived mostly from the top 5% earners in the U.S. but that is not sufficient.  After a person saves what is left post taxes from a lifetime of work, the idea of a fair share is changed and includes giving back most of those savings.   That is about as fair as going to a bank and telling it to change the terms of a mortgage because the person who took on the liability has decided they can no longer afford it, oops a bad example.  See, we do have a new definition of  “fair.”       

Hey, I’m never going to be hit by this tax personally, but the idea of such a tax is disturbing. Success in life is supposed to be a good thing, not penalized by confiscation. As a practical matter, where is money most efficiently used, by people spending it, helping the next generation, giving it to charity or giving it to the federal government?  I hope this is viewed as a dumb question.      

I have a better idea (he said with tongue in cheek), let’s do away with all income taxes and everyone just pay an estate tax. We would have more money to live on (talk about stimulating the economy) and then after we are gone the government can have it all. The transition could be a problem I guess unless we can get Congress to stop spending until enough Americans die.  How about this one, the estate tax is equal to the amount you collected from Social Security and no more, talk about saving Social Security.      

Sanders Estate-Tax Proposal Would Hit Wealthy Harder      

The estate tax lapsed temporarily on Jan. 1 after the Senate failed to extend it last year. If lawmakers do nothing, the tax will resume in 2011 with a 55% rate on estates above about $1.2 million. Last year, estates of more than $3.5 million for an individual were subject to a 45% tax.      

Mr. Sanders and his co-sponsors said, “It’s time for multi-millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.”      

Mr. Sanders, did you forget that the increase in the Medicare payroll tax and the new 3.8% tax on investment income for the “wealthy” make up nearly half—$210.2 billion of the $437.8 billion—of the increased taxes imposed by the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act. How much fairness is fair?    

Even though old Bernie is an admitted socialist and favors European style government, one would think that “fair share” does not extend to confiscation of up to 55% of ones assets.  He is also concerned over the gap between the have’s and have-nots in America and rightly so. But as is the case with so many liberals and socialists, his answer is to keep taking from the have’s as if they were the culprits rather than focusing on building up the have-nots.  The irony is that enhanced taxes from the “wealthy” do not directly benefit lower-income Americans but rather disappear into the federal budget.