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#1
11-15-2007, 12:55 PM
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Re: Warren Buffet\'s Stance on Taxes
While I think Buffett is spot on about payroll taxes, I mostly disagree with him on estate taxes. I agree it's bad to have enormous inheritences, both for society and the recipients. I don't have a lot of money, but it was enormously difficult to come up with the right instructions in my will to ensure my kids work ethics and drive wouldn't be damaged by inheriting my estate.
But for the few benefits of the tax, there are many costs and some significant unfairness to it. - It's another form of double taxation. - It doesnt work i.e. reduce the gap between rich and poor. Its been in place almost the entire time the gap has grown. - It prevents family businesses from being handed down, which should practically be a right. - It forces families into expensive estate planning maneuvers that benefit Lawyers, not society, and they still end up avoiding the tax. - Occasionally families don't do state planning properly or in a timely manner and they end up paying huge estate taxes while the clever with similar size estates pay nothing. That's blatently unfair. Its kind of silly to point out the unfairness of our complicated tax system on one hand then to argue for more complication so you can toss another complication on top (a tax credit). And I would also argue if you want to attack the gap between rich and poor, look first at the payroll tax issue. I believe the SS fix in the early eighties that saved SS created held back income growth among the poor and middle class by sticking them with an enormous tax increase that also increased unemployment by increasing employers costs. 
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#2
11-15-2007, 05:31 PM
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Re: Warren Buffet\'s Stance on Taxes
[ QUOTE ] - It doesnt work i.e. reduce the gap between rich and poor. Its been in place almost the entire time the gap has grown. [/ QUOTE ] That's an absurd point. Like your posts though in general.
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#3
11-15-2007, 05:49 PM
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Re: Warren Buffet\'s Stance on Taxes
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] - It doesnt work i.e. reduce the gap between rich and poor. Its been in place almost the entire time the gap has grown. [/ QUOTE ] That's an absurd point. Like your posts though in general. [/ QUOTE ] How is that absurd when Buffett brought it up in his statement?
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#4
11-15-2007, 06:04 PM
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Re: Warren Buffet\'s Stance on Taxes
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] - It doesnt work i.e. reduce the gap between rich and poor. Its been in place almost the entire time the gap has grown. [/ QUOTE ] That's an absurd point. Like your posts though in general. [/ QUOTE ] Stop trolling, if you actually have anything of value to contribute, then do it. Buffett points out how the super-rich are taking increasing percentages of our national wealth, and thinks we need the estate tax to prevent this so why is it absurd to point out the estate tax has existed through out the entire time that gap has grown?
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#5
11-15-2007, 10:27 PM
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Re: Warren Buffet\'s Stance on Taxes
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] - It doesnt work i.e. reduce the gap between rich and poor. Its been in place almost the entire time the gap has grown. [/ QUOTE ] That's an absurd point. Like your posts though in general. [/ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] Stop trolling, if you actually have anything of value to contribute, then do it. Buffett points out how the super-rich are taking increasing percentages of our national wealth, and thinks we need the estate tax to prevent this so why is it absurd to point out the estate tax has existed through out the entire time that gap has grown? [/ QUOTE ] It is obviously absurd to suggest that the estate tax, which by it's definition takes money away from only the extremely wealthy "doesn't work" in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, just because that gap has been increasing during the existence of the estate tax. Obviously this doesn't occur in a vacuum. The gap didn't increase because of the estate tax, but it increased by a smaller amount than it would have because of it.
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#6
11-15-2007, 10:37 PM
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Re: Warren Buffet\'s Stance on Taxes
[ QUOTE ]
It is obviously absurd to suggest that the estate tax, which by it's definition takes money away from only the extremely wealthy "doesn't work" in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, just because that gap has been increasing during the existence of the estate tax. Obviously this doesn't occur in a vacuum. The gap didn't increase because of the estate tax, but it increased by a smaller amount than it would have because of it. [/ QUOTE ] I hope this is a joke. But I don't think it is lol
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#7
11-15-2007, 10:41 PM
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Re: Warren Buffet\'s Stance on Taxes
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] It is obviously absurd to suggest that the estate tax, which by it's definition takes money away from only the extremely wealthy "doesn't work" in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, just because that gap has been increasing during the existence of the estate tax. Obviously this doesn't occur in a vacuum. The gap didn't increase because of the estate tax, but it increased by a smaller amount than it would have because of it. [/ QUOTE ] I hope this is a joke. But I don't think it is lol [/ QUOTE ] If when Bill Gates dies, the government takes $1000 of his money and gives it to a poor person in the form of a tax credit, as Buffett suggested, it has transferred money from someone very rich to someone poor, thus reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. Beavis and Butthead could understand that.
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#8
11-16-2007, 03:06 PM
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Re: Warren Buffet\'s Stance on Taxes
West,
I actually think we aren't disagreeing. I just think the estate tax is too ineffective to have a large affect on income inequality. Add to that its unfairness and there are much better options including 1) allowing public company shareholders to propose board slates. 2) Heavily taxing people making excess profits from businesses that recieve direct government subsidies or benefit from government sponsored market restrictions.
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