The Estate Tax – An Immoral Tax on Success

Over the past few months we've heard a lot about the estate tax. This opinion piece in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the estate tax summarizes the opinions of many of course unaffected by the tax. The writer, like many others believes the estate tax is a valid tax simply because it applies to so few. He says, "if you are fortunate enough to receive a windfall of money from a deceased person, then a portion of that windfall should be taxed and go to the government. No one likes taxes, but certainly this tax is one of the most fair. It applies only to a very small percentage of his estates." "Estate taxes opponents argue that the estate tax is unfair because it taxes people twice. Of course we tax people twice on lots of things, including our purchases and our income. The fact that something is taxed twice hardly makes it unfair." "Here's a tax that only affects those who benefited the most economically from government and society, namely the wealthy."

This remains to me to be the continuing effort to tax success regardless of its form. The argument that "we tax lots of things multiple times anyway" is again stating that is okay to tax the same things over and over again simply because one is successful. When you consider that by the time net worth is passed down, it will have been taxed at least 3 to 4 times, it is absolutely immoral. The argument that "it only hurts a few, therefore it's okay", is scary because it simply states that you should be taxed because you're successful.  Finally, the argument that one somehow benefited from our government in his or her success in therefore should return that success back to the government is simply illogical and stupid. We constantly pay for the cost of government multiple times over.  Most of estates belonged to small businesses that lack the liquidity to be able to pay the onerous estate tax and are forced to make poor decisions or make complex decisions to avoid paying it.

The bottom line – I have yet to hear one clear, sound argument that would support this immoral and unethical tax.