Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Politics Lincoln files estate tax bill
Posted by Leslie Newell Peacock on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 9:35 AM
News release this morning from Sen. Lincoln's office on jump. She says it's time to protect farmers. Right.
Update: Blog reader Stephen Koch (no relation to billionaire David mentioned below) alerts us to this article in Talking Points Memo on the position taken by Lincoln's pal on the estate tax proposal, Minority Whip Jon Kyle, and other Repubs that tax cuts generate money for the treasury and don't need to be paid for, but extending unemployment benefits don't and do.
Please note that the cut in the top estate tax, from 45 to 35 percent, will be worth a cool $9 billion at current values to just the top five Walton estates. 9 BILLION. Who'll pay for that lost revenue (not just from Waltons but Kochs, etc.) over the years? The working schlubs, that's who.
Lincoln, Kyl Introduce Estate Tax Reform Proposal
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) introduced late Tuesday a proposal to permanently reform the federal estate tax.
The proposal would require the Senate Finance Committee to amend H.R. 5297, the Small Business Lending bill, to permanently set the estate tax rate at 35 percent, with a $5 million exemption amount phased in over 10 years and indexed for inflation. It would also provide a “stepped up basis” for inherited assets.
“It’s time to take decisive action on the estate tax, and provide the permanent solution that Arkansas’s hardworking farmers and small businesses are desperately seeking,” Lincoln said. “Uncertainty in the estate tax law has caused incredible difficulties for these individuals, which is why I have fought for a quick resolution to the issue that is both permanent and fair. One way to improve upon an already strong legislative initiative that includes tax incentives and a number of other benefits for small businesses is to ensure that we reach a permanent solution on the estate tax to provide small business owners and famers with the certainty they need.”
“If the Small Business Lending bill is intended to help small business create jobs, wouldn’t it make sense to provide small business owners with the certainty that their tax rates aren’t going to skyrocket at the beginning of next year?” said Kyl. “In just six short months, American taxpayers will face the largest tax hike in history unless Congress acts. It is estimated that more than a half million American families will pay the estate tax over the next decade, and the lack of congressional action creates a tremendous amount of uncertainty for these families, small-business owners, and farmers. This uncertainty is one of several factors acting to prevent a strong economic recovery from taking hold.”
The Lincoln-Kyl proposal provides an election for deceased taxpayers to either retain this year’s estate tax rate, which is zero percent with “carry over basis,” or file under the provisions of the new bill.
Their proposal also instructs the Senate Finance Committee to offset the difference in revenue loss between the Obama administration’s proposed 45 percent estate tax rate with a $3.5 million exemption amount and their proposed reform.
If Congress does not act this year, the federal estate tax is scheduled to increase to 55 percent with only a $1 million exemption at the beginning of 2011.
Senators Lincoln and Kyl introduced a similar measure in April 2009 that received broad bipartisan support and was successfully added to the non-binding congressional budget resolution.
Comments (25)
Showing 1-25 of 25
So we have millions unemployed, millions losing their homes, pensions, health care... nearly 40 million on food stamps... and all Plantation Blanche can do is the trickle-down dance for the millionaire billionaire club with Kyl.
Because tax breaks leading the greedy rich to highly speculative ponzi looting schemes which produce nothing at best, disaster being par for the course, has worked out so well.
If Blanches idea of small business/farmers are those who sit on 5 million or more when they die.... And she wants us to believe dead people can't afford a ten or twenty percent swing in taxes after they are dead, or that if they keep that money the economy will be better off..... what more do we need to know to declare her insane and the system completely broken and corrupted?
Dante must be her secret middle name or favorite secret password.
like
dislike
“In just six short months, American taxpayers will face the largest tax hike in history unless Congress acts", said Kyl.
Senator Kyl, need we remind you that it was a Republicon Congress that wrote the estate tax bill like this? So it was your 'team', Senator, that is responsible for the ups and downs in estate tax rates.
And why did your 'team' do it this way, where the estate tax completely disappeared in 2010 and was fully reinstated in 2011? Because the Congressional Budget Office would have 'scored' the long term budget impact of permanently eliminating the estate tax so harshly it would have been hard or impossible to foist this miscarriage on the American people.
It's really heartwarming to know you are working to protect millionaires while denying unemployment benefits to those who really need some help. You're one cold-blooded SOB, Senator!
$5 million exemption? That is an sure 'nuf is an very tiny farm! This woman makes me want to puke at her ignoring the working folks, (I meant to say sharecroppers in order to remain politically correct for Blank Lincoln). Barf..............
Blanche and Kyl, not exactly the "Hero's of Humanity". Arkansas is losing it's Family Farms at an alarming rate. Despite Sen. Lincoln love of family cotton, her Ag Committee tends to reward big Corporate farms with tax breaks and subsidies. Its a sad cycle. As the family farm fails to meet it's debt obligation to the banks, the farm is broken up and sold for pennies on the dollar to its corporate competitor, who then qualifies for more tax pay subsidies, since they are based on acreage farmed. I wonder if this Estate Tax will do anything to lower the double digit unemployment rates in Delta Counties like Arkansas, Mississippi and Crittenden?
The problem is we're outnumbered in Congress. Johnny Blanche and Kyl have many brothers and sisters who'll also vote to protect the rich. And what self respecting person would sit in the same room with Kyl.....and what kind of damn name is that? Buy that man some vowels!
The rich always win so the last thing we should do is help them along by reelecting Johnny Blanche. With either one you got the same damn thing.....they're both playing for the same team and that team doesn't want you on their side. They want you working for nothing and singing a happy song working their fields in the hot sun.
We lose for the next 6 years if Johnny Blanche wins in November. Just guess who pays all the taxes if the rich pay none. John Gray is our only way out.
Here's the sad fact about living in Arkansas. If our next Senator is not Blanche Lincoln, it will be John Boozman.
We're screwed, and we're passing it up to Washington.
I wish I had enough money to buy myself a Blanche bill. I wonder what her base rate is? If she's smart, her fee is proportional to the money she makes for her customer.
The best argument I've ever heard in favor of the estate tax was made by Bill Gates, one with perhaps the most to gain by it's repeal / alteration. Gates recognizes that the estate tax provides a huge source of tax income that would have to be replaced by other traditional regressive tax methods. When I hear anyone attack the estate tax, I think of one thing, greed. Promoting this bill under the auspices of protecting the hardworking small farmer or small businessman who desperately needs a break is baloney. No one with an estate larger than $5 million is financially desperate, except with greed.
That's it for me. This life-long Democrat will not vote in the Lincoln-Boozman race. I don't give a damn if Boozman wins, it doesn't matter, they're all the same. I don't like to get personal, but I need a job and I need the unemployment extension, but these wretched people are heartless. They can all go straight to hell.
As much as I like to engage in Class Warfare I actually have no issues with an estate tax with a 5 exemption limit.
That will protect Lincoln's imaginary family farms that get sold for "death taxes" each year and will protect the small family business. While we can keep taxing the Walton's and such....
Sad, but the truth is this is about the only place you will read of these truths in Arkansas. Most Arkies will NEVER understand the Kyl -Lincoln-Boozman scheme even when they're hungry and homeless. They can be so easily distracted by non-issues like gays, guns and immigration.
Taking government welfare for the life of huge farms
and now bitching about having to pay back some of the gains.
Subsidized banks
subsidized farms
subsidized car manufactures
subsidized oil companies.
This is the makings of a 3rd World Nation. Thanks Blanche.
Guess there's not much left for Welfare Queens.
Thanks,Sound Policy, for making the important point that the Republicans wrote their bills providing tax cuts for the rich in the only way they could make them "revenue neutral" -- by having the flow of gravy for the rich peak in 2010, then revert to then-existing rates on January 1, 2011. They calculated deliberately that, by this time, they could scream about "the largest tax hike in history" and voters' memories would be too short to recall that reversion to fair, progressive, previous rates is not a tax HIKE but the end of an alleged temporary tax BREAK to "grow the economy."
David Sirota seconds, in Salon, Bill Clinton's argument that low marginal tax rates for the wealthy (and, by extension, excusing heirs from paying capital gains tax that their parents deferred past their last gasp) tends to prolong a recession, not stimulate the economy:
"...Though the Reagan zeitgeist created the illusion that taxes stunt economic growth, the numbers prove that higher marginal tax rates generate more resources for the job-creating, wage-generating public investments (roads, bridges, broadband, etc.) that sustain an economy. They also create economic incentives for economy-sustaining capital investment. Indeed, the easiest way wealthy business owners can avoid high-bracket tax rates is by plowing their profits back into their businesses and taking the corresponding write-off rather than simply pocketing the excess cash and paying an IRS levy."
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/…
And leave us remember that unless your elderly parents are millionaires or you are, if and when one of them falls and breaks a hip or gets seriously ill with their last illness and winds up in a nursing home, the end of life tax they'll have to pay is the forfeiture of their home and their life savings. How's that for a whopping Death Tax that will effect many more Arkansans than the ones Johnny Blanche are worrying about.
A stay in a nursing home runs about 5000 per month on up. If Ma or Pa doesn't have at least 120,000 saved up for their 24 month stay....away away away goes everything they've spent their life working for.
Ask your friends and neighbors how many have gone thru this in their lives. It's very common these days. Unless your rich....today is a good day to put all your parents assets in your name. I hate to be a cheater, but that's what we've come to today.
Since no one else has, I will note the almost "Silence of the Trolls," on this topic.
" .. only a small number of estates would be affected if Congress went back to 2009 levels, when estates worth $3.5 million and up paid a 45 percent tax. President Barack Obama supports the 2009 levels.
There are about 6,000 estates nationwide worth more than $3.5 million, he said. About 99.8 percent of deaths would trigger no estate tax. The tax was established in 1916.
In 2008, when the tax was 45 percent on estates worth $2 million or more, 157 Arkansas estates paid over $5 million, according to the IRS website." Snip from Arkansas Democrat article in today's business section
Let's see, if 157 Arkansas estates worth more than $2 million in 2008 'paid over $5 million' in taxes, that comes to $31,847 each. Those 157 estates were worth more than $314 million (likely, way more) and paid $5 million in taxes. That's a marginal tax rate of 1.59%. I feel their pain!
Hey, I know I'm not in that bracket, but I'd be willing to pay 1.59% taxes on my wealth. Oh, that's right, I forgot, only estates valued at more than $2 million in 2008 had to pay anything in estate taxes. So I won't owe anything. How is that a 'death tax' when 99.8% of people wouldn't owe the government one red cent? The Republicons and their ad people have pulled the wool big time over the eyes of the American people.
Corporate Welfare in the United States
% of Foreign-owned Corporations doing Business in the US Paying ZERO US Taxes: 72 Percent
% of US Corporations paying ZERO US Taxes: 67 Percent
Effective Tax Rate paid by all Publicly Traded Corporations: 12 Percent
Effective Tax Rate Paid by Largest Multinationals: 25 Percent
US taxes paid by Exxon-Mobile paid on $37.3 Billion profit in 2009: ZERO
US taxes paid by General Electric on $10.3 Billion Profit in 2009: ZERO
US taxes Paid by Bailout Recipient Bank of America on $4.4 Billion Profit in 2009: ZERO
US Taxes Paid by Chevron on $18.5 Billion Profit in 2009: 200 million (1.1% Tax Rate)
US Taxes Paid by Verizon on $11.6 Billion Profit in 2009: 1.1 Billion (10% Tax Rate)
According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly three fourths of all foreign-owned corporations doing business inside the United States pay no taxes on that activity in multiple years between 1998 and 2005. Nearly the same amount of US-based corporations pay zero taxes to the United States Government. These facts fly in the fact of the ongoing Wall Street and corporate media narrative that US Corporations face the highest taxes in the world.
http://www.oldelmtree.com/index.php?topic=…
How about this: Democrats vote for Boozman because that will get rid of Lincoln, a senior senator and a powerful chairman of the Ag committee who is beholden to Monsanto, et al. If Boozman is elected he will be a powerless junior senator with no chairmanship. Perhaps in the next election cycle a better Democrat will run. Lincoln can go to work as a lobbyist for Monsanto. My dear mother would roll over in her grave if I do that, but I think the reasoning is sound. Sorry mom.
billyed, I would hope that you'd vote for John Gray. I like his platform. Looking at Little Rock poll online John scores higher than Blanche, Boozman and Trevor together.
I hope this will be true comes November!
It may be 99.8% don't pay the death tax but it is a different 0.2% every year. The death tax is a one time tax, most of you are confusing it with income tax which is every year. The estates that would pay the death tax are the ones that a large employers. If the estates have to sell their assets to pay the death tax, it is either a much smaller company or goes completely out of business. That means the jobs that it may provide will be gone and then nobody makes any money to pay income taxes either.
Elwood, those are interesting and infuriating stats. What is the source for the information?
I agree with Tinker. John Gray is the logical choice for any Democratic voter who cannot stomach voting for Lincoln.
Holy Crap! What she is proposing is criminal.
While I agree with others that voting for a Republican physically makes my stomach turn, I've thought about it and I want to ensure that Lincoln does not win come November so I will be voting for Boozman and here's why:
Lincoln is a powerful senior senator who chairs the powerful ag committee. Boozman, if elected, would be a weak junior senator with no senatorial experience. A friend suggested I could hedge my bets by financially supporting a Dem in another state, though I doubt my financial support would amount to much.
But the bottom line is: Lincoln has to go. Period. And while voting for John Gray will not make me ill (I'd be thrilled if he could win), I'm afraid it might split votes and Lincoln might possibly come up with a victory and that would truly make me ill.
More by Author
-
Thank goodness for Eureka
Where artists are on fire — or at least their sculptures will be.
- May 15, 2012
-
Studying science through art at Park Hill
Work by Virmarie DePoyster's fifth graders to be unveiled at 10 a.m. Friday at Cook's Landing.
- May 1, 2012
- More »
Event Calendar
-
Re: Arkansas at bottom on friendliness to bicycles
The bicycle league's friendly state distinction is based on 5 parameters. Only one is directly…
- on May 24, 2012
-
Re: Take the load off: Ride a pedicab to Riverfest
Kudos to Kum & Go.
I can only imagine the logistics that the…- on May 24, 2012
-
Re: Hurst fined again by bar committee for late filing
And I will go with Hurst because the last thing we need is another Karl…
- on May 24, 2012
Top Commenters
Blogroll
Slideshows
-
Police close the Occupy Little Rock camp, perhaps the last Occupy encampment on public land.
Site Index
News
Cover Story / Arkansas Reporter / The Week That Was / Smart Talk / The Insider / The Observer / Editorial / Max Brantley / Ernest Dumas / Gene Lyons / Bob Lancaster / Words / Guest Writer / Letters
Entertainment
A&E Feature / To-Do List / In Brief / Movie Reviews / Music Reviews / Theater Reviews / A&E News / Art Notes / Graham Gordy / Books / Media / Dining Reviews / Dining Guide / What's Cookin' / Calendar / The Televisionist / Movie Listings / Gallery Listings
This Week's Cover
Quick Links
Special Publications
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
