Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
You could divide the nation into two groups:
1/
People who work diligently and build up their assets, including inherited assets/wealth.
2/
People who work diligently with little or no ability to build assets.
What I’m seeing here (Forum) are lefties of various flavours who regard unearned wealth as partial property the state can 40% take and give to group 2.
But say the wealth left behind in a will is all earned on which tax has already been paid? Unfair to tax it again just because it becomes unearned wealth for the next generation.
Lefties basically apply the politics of envy. Until they ‘get the foreman’s job at last’.
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Wealth is routinely taxed when it moves from one person or business to another. I paid income tax on the money I’ve just spent on a coffee. The coffee shop owner will pay tax on that part of my payment that represents their profit. The part of my payment that is used to buy more coffee beans will generate a profit for the wholesaler, who will in turn pay tax on their profit. Wealth moves around the economy and it is taxed almost every time. Suggesting that the very significant value of an entire personal estate should not be taxed when it is transferred, on death, to another person, is special pleading of the very worst kind. The only exemption that makes any sense is the spousal one because their life is intimately connected with the deceased’s affairs and it would be egregious to destroy the living of someone who legitimately depends on that accumulated wealth. But nobody - nobody - should be dependent on the wealth of an inheritance. There is nothing lefty about that belief. We have had inheritance taxes of one sort or another in this country since the 17th century. The only thing that’s really changed in that time is how well designed they are. Abolishing them altogether is really only doing the rich tax-avoiders jobs for them.
Footnote, claiming that the collection of tax betrays a ‘wealth belongs to the state’ mindset is the worst sort of self serving, libertarian guff. We live in a democracy and we agree, via the ballot box, that the operation of the complex modern society we live in should be paid for by all of us, with due regard to means.