18 rich families pay for campaign to kill estate taxes
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Sabrina Eaton
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Washington -- Eighteen of America's wealthiest families, including the Timkens of Canton, are bankrolling efforts to permanently repeal estate taxes that would save their families a total of $71.6 billion, according to a report released Tuesday by public interest groups.
Groups funded by the super-rich have engaged in a deceptive campaign to convince the public that estate taxes cause widespread problems for small businesses and family farms when they actually affect about one in 370 estates, said the report released by Public Citizen and Boston-based United for a Fair Economy.
This year, all assets under $2 million for individuals and under $4 million for couples are exempt from estate taxes. Current tax law will boost those exemptions to $3.5 million and $7 million in 2009, eliminate the estate tax in 2010, and reimpose it in 2011 with a $1 million exemption.
The House voted to permanently repeal the estate tax last year, but the measure stalled in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to override filibusters. Majority Leader Bill Frist says he will bring the bill up in May.
Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine wants to repeal the tax because he says it hinders economic growth and penalizes society's most productive members, while Ohio GOP Sen. George Voinovich says the cost of eliminating it is too great: about $290 billion over the next 10 years. Voinovich would prefer a compromise to elevate the minimum threshold for estate tax liability to $3.5 million and regularly adjust it for inflation.
Groups that support estate tax repeal say they're close to getting the 60 votes they need. Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform says 68 percent of Americans want the tax eliminated. He says estate taxes affect a broad range of people and dismissed the report's contention that it only affects the super rich as "tired rhetoric of hate and envy."
The groups that released the report called it a "myth" that estate taxes force families to sell farms and businesses. They said the taxes raise revenue from those most able to pay, prompt the rich to give to charity and deter concentrations of wealth.
They said families including those that founded Wal-Mart, Gallo wineries, Nordstrom's department stores, Wegman's grocery stores, the Mars candy company, Cox media chain and Campbell Soup Co. joined the Timkens in bankrolling an effort the groups' report called "one of the biggest con jobs in recent history."
The report says the 18 families financed business groups, trade associations and lobbyists to push for their goals. Information about their participation was obtained through lobbying reports and IRS forms filed by anti-tax groups, the report said.
Based on the Timken family's estimated $201.5 million stake in its company, the report predicted estate tax repeal would save its heirs about $79 million. A Timken Co. spokesman did not return phone calls.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: seaton@plaind.com, 216-999-4212
(This article can be found here.)
Sabrina Eaton
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Washington -- Eighteen of America's wealthiest families, including the Timkens of Canton, are bankrolling efforts to permanently repeal estate taxes that would save their families a total of $71.6 billion, according to a report released Tuesday by public interest groups.
Groups funded by the super-rich have engaged in a deceptive campaign to convince the public that estate taxes cause widespread problems for small businesses and family farms when they actually affect about one in 370 estates, said the report released by Public Citizen and Boston-based United for a Fair Economy.
This year, all assets under $2 million for individuals and under $4 million for couples are exempt from estate taxes. Current tax law will boost those exemptions to $3.5 million and $7 million in 2009, eliminate the estate tax in 2010, and reimpose it in 2011 with a $1 million exemption.
The House voted to permanently repeal the estate tax last year, but the measure stalled in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to override filibusters. Majority Leader Bill Frist says he will bring the bill up in May.
Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine wants to repeal the tax because he says it hinders economic growth and penalizes society's most productive members, while Ohio GOP Sen. George Voinovich says the cost of eliminating it is too great: about $290 billion over the next 10 years. Voinovich would prefer a compromise to elevate the minimum threshold for estate tax liability to $3.5 million and regularly adjust it for inflation.
Groups that support estate tax repeal say they're close to getting the 60 votes they need. Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform says 68 percent of Americans want the tax eliminated. He says estate taxes affect a broad range of people and dismissed the report's contention that it only affects the super rich as "tired rhetoric of hate and envy."
The groups that released the report called it a "myth" that estate taxes force families to sell farms and businesses. They said the taxes raise revenue from those most able to pay, prompt the rich to give to charity and deter concentrations of wealth.
They said families including those that founded Wal-Mart, Gallo wineries, Nordstrom's department stores, Wegman's grocery stores, the Mars candy company, Cox media chain and Campbell Soup Co. joined the Timkens in bankrolling an effort the groups' report called "one of the biggest con jobs in recent history."
The report says the 18 families financed business groups, trade associations and lobbyists to push for their goals. Information about their participation was obtained through lobbying reports and IRS forms filed by anti-tax groups, the report said.
Based on the Timken family's estimated $201.5 million stake in its company, the report predicted estate tax repeal would save its heirs about $79 million. A Timken Co. spokesman did not return phone calls.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: seaton@plaind.com, 216-999-4212
(This article can be found here.)
Powered by Blogger
2 Comments:
It is curious that these folks -- who have done so well by a system that provides them with the opportunity to create, enhance, and hold their wealth -- do not find virtue in returning something, perhaps even something substantial and worthwhile, to that system when they die...
Perhaps their progeny, who in most cases make little significant contribution to the clan's riches, are not living well enough...?
Of course, I can see how the average member of Congress will fall behind this notion. To oppose it would interfere with the normal flow of cash into the campaign and, um, other expenses...
The United States has always been a class-based society. But this is yet another squeeze on the middle and lower classes who would have nothing to pay, anyway -- except, ultimately, a higher portion of their income in taxes as corporations and the rich find new ways to pay lawmakers to relieve their wealthy clients of the burden...
The killing of estate taxes helps to ensure that the wealthy keep all of their wealth -- and power, of course, purchased by a modest portion of that wealth -- and that the continuity of their relationship with the rest of society is institutionalized and preserved. We wouldn't want to see these pampered children forced to go out to find a real job...
I posted this at C&L. I can't believe 68% fall for this crap.
Vox Verax: Speaking of the super-rich, how'd they get there in the first place? Over the past 13 years "stockholders" paid one man, Lee Raymond, the chief executive of Exxon Mobile $686 million. IRAs, 401ks and pension programs systematically invest our money in America's public companies. Why can't we sue the fiduciaries (corporate directors) who represent us, for awarding this amount of compensation?
These mutual fund managers are at least partly responsible. They have the power to vote this shit down, but they're raping the same excessive compensation from their own industry.
*Just something to think about next time you make a deposit into your retirement account.
We're gettin' ripped at both ends. Now generations of Timkins' and Lee Raymond's family can live off their inheritance by permanently repealing estate taxes. Aristocracy rules!
Post a Comment
<< Home