Comments on: Buffett: Keep Federal Estate Tax

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

[andor3]

exactly! Mr. Buffett shows his wisdom once again.

A rich person should leave his/her kids with an education in how to work to make money (or make money work depending on your perspective), not a pile of money so they never need to work.

[far_point200]

What article didn''t tell was that Buffet was in no way in hell going to let his fortune fall into the hands of the US Treasury. He will place it in a trust with Gates upon demise.

A trust with how many trustees? A dozen maybe? Are their interests aligned with the will of the people?

Such an enormous concentration of power residing in the hands of a small group "trustees" is just a little bit scary!

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!

[standlee5]

"Unless Congress changes the law, it comes roaring back in 2011 with a lowered exemption threshold of $1 million and a top rate of 55 percent."

Just in time to nail all the baby boomers. They don''t need to take our money after we die. We''ve worked hard to pass it on to heirs not the govt.

[incog-nito]

One more thing: Charitable donations shouldn''t be tax deductible. People can give all they want, but other taxpayers shouldn''t have to finance part of it. Also this just encourage people to fudge the numbers to get a bigger deduction.

[idlepugilist]

bthrasher103 made an idealistic statement...essentially it should be ok for people with estates of $99 million "ong as it is invested in a U.S. company that is service based...in the U.S." Another illusion. First nobody is talking about depriving the wealthy (let''s see, if you take away a certain amount of money they couldn''t spend in a lifetime, and leave them with multiples of amounts they couldn''t possibly spend in a lifetime...), and second, the wealthy were mostly likely already provided tax shelters and loopholes to acquire their immense wealth. Opposite of sur-taxes, the very wealthy expect sur-tax breaks.
No, my republican friends, the indentured slaves to these wealthy people expect the wealthy to share their unbelievably, incredibly good fortune. No bull about capitalism here, folks, because the parents of 4 making $75k are trying very hard to understand

[bthrasher102]

Buffet is right when talking about people with estates of say 100 million or more. Anything lower than that should be allowed to be kept by the people who earned it. Buffet can say what he did because he is old and rich beyond belief. His kids will be billionaires even after the estate is paid. The best solution would be to allow the rich to keep any amount of wealth as long as it is invested in a U.S. company that is service based and or manufactures all of its products in the U.S.

[incog-nito]

And another thing, remove tax-exempt status from "non-profit" organizations. Then they can be as political as they want.

[incog-nito]

Buffet is absolutely right.

[frb01]

My father saved money and worked hard all his life. He was not a multi-millionaire, he just accumulated wealth that was taxed along the way at least once. When he died in 1998, Bill Clinton said only 3000 estates paid taxes that year, well in our case it was 1000''s of dollars which we could have donated to charity, which we have done in the years since his passing, or used it to build a fund for college educations for grandchildren he never saw. I am tired of politicians worth 25, 30 or 50 million talking about this like it does hurt. It hurts Americans who moved from the lower class to the middle class in a generation. Buffet is wrong.

[cpaide]

"I think we need to ... take a little more out of the hides of guys like me," Buffett told the Senate Finance Committee.

I agree. But let''s repeal the federal tax and let the state of Nebraska impose a special estate tax of 80 percent on estates in excess of $1 billion.

A repeal of the federal tax on inheritances would amount to a huge windfall for the wealthiest U.S. states--not families. Just ask Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee or any other states that have estate, death, gift or inheritance taxes that are independent of the federal system.