Death tax defying – The Wall Street Journal editorial

By admin • March 30th, 2012

While Washington continues to debate what to do with the federal death tax — the top rate is now 35 percent and is scheduled to rise to 55 percent next year — states are starting to recognize that their high estate taxes are a good way to chase away wealth producers. Last year Ohio abolished its estate tax, joining the 28 other states that do not impose such a tax at death. The left has long been flummoxed by polls showing that roughly two of three Americans want this tax abolished. Americans instinctively understand that the tax is unfair. It punishes a lifetime of thrift and investment solely due to the accident of death. And it does so in a way that imposes another tax on income that in most cases has already been taxed once, or sometimes twice. View Full Article.