How can anyone justify the estate tax? The Senate Bill keeps it.

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It is a tax on money that has already been taxed. It is government theft. Plain and simple.

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Couldn't agree more. Government picking at the carcass of your estate like vultures.

The senate is so fricking worthless

Well, the rationale is that real property ownership is relatively static since we no longer have homesteads like those that were readily available in the 19th century. Thus, the poor former slaves and the immigrants who arrived after the landrushes were over are essentially too late to the game. Since there is no more new land for them, there must be a mechanism to ensure that wealth and property does not remain static. The purpose of the estate tax is to force families to at some point part with their real property, putting more land in commerce, and thus offering more opportunities for disadvantaged citizens to become property owners.

At least that's what LSU Law's lead race-bait professor of property Tyson espoused.

You just want people to be more poor and less happy.

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How can anyone justify the estate tax?

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Austintigerdad quotes a Forbes article that has excellent justification. Let me add my own:

If taxes must be paid, then let them take my money when I am dead.

Taxes serve as a disincentive: I would rather tax assets via an estate tax, then wealth creation via an income tax.

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The garbage justification that you hear all the time that "it only applies to 0.2% of estates" is such a garbage bullshite excuse. It is a tax on money that has already been taxed. It is government theft. Plain and simple.

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I do love the continual absurdity of the party successfully selling the narrative to working class people that un-earned handouts erode the moral fiber and work ethic of the poor and working class of this country, while simultaneously asserting there is zero moral hazard toward the most spoiled amongst us inheriting daddy and mommy's billion dollar estate for simply hitting the genetic lottery, with no stipulations or deductions.

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I do love the continual absurdity of the party

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You mean the party that doesn't like big government and loves capitalism? The estate tax goes against those values.

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I do love the continual absurdity of the party successfully selling the narrative to working class people that un-earned handouts erode the moral fiber and work ethic of the poor and working class of this country, while simultaneously asserting there is zero moral hazard toward the most spoiled amongst us inheriting daddy and mommy's billion dollar estate for simply hitting the genetic lottery, with no stipulations or deductions.

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You're an idiot. The idea should be that the poorer people strive to be in the top where their successes can be passed down to their children, not stripped away by the government when they die because "it equals the field". The government already has taken their share of that money. Why should they get to double dip?

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Considering the way most would-be affected families can skirt it, it's asinine.

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure that you can avoid most of these taxes via trusts and the like, but it's still a horrible tax on principal alone. Either everyone has to pay it or no one has to pay it.