Comments on: Buffett: Keep Federal Estate Tax

Billionaire Tells Senate Finance Committee Inherited U.S. Estates Should Be Taxed

[realpatriot1]

mbcsmith,

The person who was originally taxed is dead. The recipient of this unearned(by them)income is being taxed for the 1st time.

[oscarez]

Warren Buffett is a man of integrity and honesty. A man who cares about the future of this country and is willing to put his money where his mouth is. integrity and honesty are more important than being rich.

[oscarez]

"No matter how rich you are, and how determined you are to crush everyone around you so you can have your own personal empire, you shouldnt be taxed at a 55% rate. Thats rediculous."

But it''s OK to tax a person making $50,000.00 a year at 25% each and every year?

[jn122736]

The average American is a natural born dreamer. Everyone believes he/she will be successful in life. Except for a few times in our history such as the 1930%u2019s (great depression) everyone at least had the same basic opportunities.

Most of today%u2019s millionaires/billionaires made their fortunes due to the opportunities afforded by the anti-monopoly and tax laws of the post %u201Cgreat depression%u201D era.
Our rich and/or greedy elected leaders have now gutted or ignored those laws to the point where average Americans no longer have those same opportunities.
Now they want to eliminate the inheritance tax so their offspring will be born into royalty without having to earn their way in life.

These people have taking control of the minds many people by demeaning such valuable and meaningful words as Liberalism and socialism and by referring to the inheritance tax as the death tax. The hardest part for me to comprehend is that people are gullible enough to fall for it over and over again.

The children of the working class will be doomed to a lifetime of virtual slavery while the children of the rich will be their masters.

There will be no such thing as becoming wealthy by inventing something because those, already wealthy, owners will own the patent rights to anything their workers/slaves invent.

So much for the %u201Call men are created equal%u201D and %u201Cland of the free%u201D fantasies.

[ov442]

First of all, consumer spending is the source of almost all wealth. it accounts for over 70% of the GDP.
So hoarding money at the top, where it gets invested and saved and held, does not promote economic growth. Putting it back into the economy does.

Tax Laws that help the wealthy keep their wealth or increase it, are stupid.

However, .... i dont believe in completely unfair taxation either.
I think a compromise is in order, such as the last paragraph of the article. The scale limits should be raised to reflect the increase in so many millionaires and higher over the last 10 yrs. A $1Mill limit is too low. I''d say look at the asset values and find a useful limit such as $5 mill and stick wtih that for 10 yrs and re-evaluate then. And just exempt Farms and family business from the large amounts and that''ll shut up the politicians making excuses.

No matter how rich you are, and how determined you are to crush everyone around you so you can have your own personal empire, you shouldnt be taxed at a 55% rate. Thats rediculous. Now, the Loopholes need to go though because they are reducing the tax that rich people pay to a rate lower than middle income people pay. Thats Diametrically opposite of good tax policy.

The most recent tax laws that Bush has enacted have dropped Buffet''s total tax burden to a lower rate than his secretary. Thats immoral.

[amazedd]

It makes sense that the 2nd richest person should be backing the second most powerful party.

[drudge2]

I think we should be willing to admit that there is an aristocracy.
We could then go on to make demands of the Aristocracy.

[micma-2009]

Buffett said inheritance taxes preserve a measure of meritocracy, and with it opportunity, by recycling portions of great wealth through public coffers.

"The resources of society, I don''t think, should pass along in terms of an aristocratic dynasty of wealth," Buffett told the panel. "I believe in keeping equality of opportunity as much as you can in this country."

[micma-2009]

When all the wealth of a country is concentrated in the hands of a few, Democracy is finished.

That''s where Republican "trickle down" economic policies are taking us.

[bthrasher102]

You can dictate where people invest money. Most tax credits and some deductions are aimed at getting people to invest in certain things. I''m saying give taxpayers a break on their estate tax if it is invested in certain parts of the U.S. economy. This creates jobs and or keeps them in the U.S. That would work much better than giving it to the government so that they can turn around an give away what they don''t spend on their own excesses. Also, people can and do overpay their taxes all the time. The IRS will never ever give you a refund unless you ask for it. If you file a return showing all income and no deductions, exemptions, withholdings, etc. they will let you pay more than you should.

[mbcsmith]

Every nickel earned by Americans is taxed in the year of earnings. THEN, when you die it is taxed again. Seems like the old double taxation scam.

[mbcsmith]

Let''s see, Since Buffet gave his money to Gates, Buffet won''t be paying a nickel of estate tax. It''s EASY to say everyone else should pay. No kudos for Buffet here. He hired a dozen lawyers to avoid the tax.

[creeper00]

Omaha''s Warren Buffett is an example of the clarity of thinking you can find if you go outside the Beltway.

That alone is probably enough to make the pols ignore him.

[why_not_nar]

This guy is just a class act. Since he is donating his money, i would love to see him donate his time toward fixing our country. He would have my vote any day.

[excoachken]

Why should anybody be able to pass on obscene wealth. Kids who get the "golden spoon" stuck intheir mouth as a birthright, grow up to be unproductive, egocentric, arrogant, and entitled adults like "W" How about a cap of a reasonable starter fund (for your children) that would be allowable and the rest "recycled" in to raise the "quality of life" of the rest of our collective offspring by reducing the national debt.

[phydeux1]

Uh Jowand, you might want to read before you rant. He made this statement to Congress, which means he DOES want our elected officials to have the control. I''m sure he wasn''t the only person testifying to Congress on the subject.

And Neither Buffet or Gates can pay more in taxes, anymore than you or I could. Sure, they can overpay in withholding if they choose to. But when tax time comes around in the spring they''re just going to get the excess back as a tax refund.

If they want to protect farmers however, they can just build in some sort of "agricultural family business" exemption. That way you don''t get taxed for the farm you pass on to your kids.

BTHRASHER, sorry, you can''t dictate by law where someone invests their money just because they''re rich. That''s not government''s job and it would just create even MORE bureaucratic red tape.

[missingamerica]

Buffett didn''t get rich by being stupid; he knows that an economy is a pyramid, and if the Republicans succeed with another assault on ours, they''ll just further weaken the pyramid''s foundation at the same time as they''re putting more weight in its wealthy apex.

Many civilizations and governments have crashed throughout history; inevitably, words like "decadence" are used to explain away their demise.

But the reality is as those in power siezed more and more wealth for themselves, those below them first lost the will to fight for a society which did not reward them and then eventually realized that the elite themselves represented a readily accessible source of wealth that was ripe for the picking.

There have been lots of idiots over the course of human history who sought to steepen the slopes of the inequality curve because they couldn''t see beyond their greed.

[jowand]

But what is even scarier is what Buffet & Gates are saying to the rest of us.... we would rather control that enormous power with a few who think like us rather than letting our elected officials control it!

They are now in effect competing with government for financial power to make (hopefully) positive things happen because they know our government is broken and is incapable of providing the things that many people are demanding.

Maybe competion is exactly what is needed to make a more lean and mean government!

Posted by far_point200 at 11:48 PM : Nov 14, 2007

It''s their money not yours or mine.

[jowand]

Warren Buffet can voluntarily pay more taxes if he wants to so can his rich buddy Bill Gates, it''s perfectly legal and in the tax code. How much is Warren Buffet paying over and above what is required of him, ZERO.
Instead he and Bill Gates are throwing money all over the globe in lieu of doing something good with it over here in the USA; guily conciences maybe?
Warren Buffet lives in financial la-la land, he doesn''t have clue what it''s like to look at monthly bills and wonder where the money might come from.

[jetranger7]

I say quit taxing taxes on FOOD products !!! too !!