Comment Re:We need to stop big tax dodgers useing loop hol (Score 1) 300
I can't agree with you that that everyone with over $1million is super-rich.
Here's a very middle-class example: A 50 year old man with three kids under 18. He has $200k equity in his home, and has saved $800k towards retirement. He dies, suddenly. Is it the moral obligation of the government to force the sale of his home and liquidate his retirement account so that they can "wipe the slate clean" for his minor children?
I'll somewhat agree with you that everyone with $1M isn't necessarily super rich, although that puts someone well into the 1% category. Sure, if you live in Manhattan, or SF, or whatnot it's really not an excessive amount of money.
However, the way you wrote what you did suggests that you think that this person's estate will have to liquid on death to pay taxes or make sure his kids have to start from the same place as everyone else. The first $5M or so of an estate (I think, it changes frequently and I'm not in much of a position to worry about it) is free from estate taxes, at least at the federal level. So there's no problem with your subject leaving his entire estate to his 3 kids, largely tax free. That should cover their entire educations with quite a bit left over for a better than good start in real life.
Yes, I'm aware that the ceiling where estate taxes apply is well beyond my pay grade. My reply was mostly toward the poster who claimed that the fair thing to do is "wipe the slate clean" by taking everything away upon death, that somehow that is "true capitalism", and that $1M is a good threshold for separating the wealthy from the rest of us.
The poster I replied to thinks $1M in assets makes someone incredibly wealthy, which just isn't the case. That's not the Warren Buffets or Bill Gates of the world, that's someone at the cusp of retirement, who finally owns their home after paying off a 30-year mortgage with enough money stashed away to continue living their middle-class lifestyle as long as they stick to a budget.
Someone who saves their entire working life and invests their money in a couple of duplexes to have some retirement income now has $1M in assets. A small business owner who owns their building and an office full of equipment has $1M in assets. The idea that having the government step in and take it because it would be unfair for them to allow their children to inherit anything is asinine.
If we ever want to encourage the wealthy to get even more inventive about hiding their assets, I'm pretty sure this is a great way to do it.
I suppose it really boils down to how much is "too much". Everyone thinks they are middle class, and that anyone who has more is wealthy.