Quotes

"Fascism and communism both promise "social welfare," "social justice," and "fairness" to justify authoritarian means and extensive arbitrary and discretionary governmental powers." - F. A. Hayek"

"Life is a Bungling process and in no way educational." in James M. Cain

Jean Giraudoux who first said, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. Sir Winston Churchill

"summum ius summa iniuria" ("More laws, more injustice.") Cicero

As Christopher Hitchens once put it, “The essence of tyranny is not iron law; it is capricious law.”

"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan

"Law is where you buy it." Raymond Chandler

"Why did God make so many damn fools and Democrats?" Clarence Day

"If I feel like feeding squirrels to the nuts, this is the place for it." - Cluny Brown

"Oh, pshaw! When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." Owen Wister "The Virginian"

Oscar Wilde said about the death scene in Little Nell, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Thomas More's definition of government as "a conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of a commonwealth.” ~ Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” ~ Jonathon Swift

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Now Did the Deaths of Four People Cost the U.S. Government $6.5 Billion? - Freakonomics


I don't suspect Stephen Dubner thinks this was a good thing, but it was. It was $6.5 Billion the Government didn't steal for its own useless and wasteful purposes.

Now Did the Deaths of Four People Cost the U.S. Government $6.5 Billion? - NYTimes.com
by By STEPHEN J. DUBNER at Freakonomics

No, it wasn’t because of lawsuits.

No, it wasn’t because the four people were buried with trade secrets worth a lot of money.

It was because they happened to die in a year during which the estate/death tax is zero. From a post at ElderLawAnswers.com:

[George] Steinbrenner was worth an estimated $1.5 billion, meaning his heirs could save as much as $600 million in taxes because he died this year. Steinbrenner’s wealth — mostly consisting of the Yankees, a new stadium and a regional cable network — could pass to his wife tax-free even if the estate tax were in effect, but this year she might have an incentive to disclaim (or turn down) any bequest, which would allow the assets to pass to Steinbrenner’s four children free of federal tax. (But, as theProbate Lawyer Blog points out, Steinbrenner’s family would have to pay a huge capital gains tax if it were to sell any highly appreciated assets, since along with the disappearance of the estate tax, there is no “step-up” in the cost basis of inherited assets during 2010.)

The other billionaires to die in 2010 are Janet Morse Cargill of the family that founded Cargill Inc. (net worth: $1.6 billion), Texas pipeline magnate Dan Duncan ($9.8 billion), and California real estate mogul Walter Shorenstein ($1.1 billion). By rough calculation, their deaths in 2010 have cost the government some $6.5 billion.

We’ve blogged on this topic before. The inconsistencies of U.S. tax law, if it weren’t rather serious, would be comical.

Question: this being December, with a January to follow that may see an entirely different estate-tax law, might there be some surprising death activity this month among the wealthiest American families?

(HT: Van Brenner)

Stephen J. Dubner is an author and journalist who lives in New York City.


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)