| "At the death of our founder," says W. J. Grundy, the | | | | than $1,500,000 would not pay a federal estate tax |
| former chairman of Jomac, Inc., a Pennsylvania | | | | and most likely would not have to file a federal estate |
| manufacturer of protective gloves, "we spent over $3 | | | | tax return. The applicable exclusion amount increases |
| million to redeem stock so estate taxes could be paid | | | | to $2,000,000 for decedents dying in the years 2006, |
| and control of the company could be maintained. This | | | | 2007 and 2008. The amount increases to $3,500,000 |
| was $3 million not available for operations and the | | | | for 2009. According to the Economic Growth and Tax |
| division in trouble was sold -- reducing our employment | | | | Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, the federal estate |
| by about 30 employees and our sales by about $5 | | | | tax disappears for the year 2010, but the tax returns in |
| million."(Boston Globe, June 15, 2000) The Center for | | | | 2011 at the 2001 level when the temporary repeal |
| the Study of Taxation found that three out of four | | | | expires. As an extra tax applied to income that has |
| families faced with liquidating all or part of their | | | | already been drained by decades of other taxes, it is |
| business to pay the estate tax would have to cut their | | | | one of the most loathsome pieces of looting in the |
| payroll in the process. Studies by the Institute for Policy | | | | federal tax code. Put simply, it is double taxation on a |
| Innovation (IPI) and Congress's own Joint Economic | | | | working person's lifetime wages. The federal |
| Committee have found that the estate tax costs | | | | government cashes in on a wealthy person's death by |
| communities more in lost jobs and lower economic | | | | looting his or her assets with a tax on a whole lifetime |
| growth than it raises for the U.S. Treasury (William W, | | | | of work. Fortunately, opponents of the estate tax are |
| Beach, The Heritage Foundation). The very same thing | | | | struggling to make repeal permanent, but face stiff |
| can happen right here in the Valley.The estate tax (or | | | | opposition from the usual suspects in the Senate. The |
| "death tax" as it has become known, though perhaps | | | | House has already voted to permanently repeal it. A |
| wrongly so) is a tax on inherited wealth and can | | | | senate compromise could be a likely result, though an |
| amount to more than 50% of one's estate. For a | | | | unsatisfactory one. Our own U. S. |
| person dying during 2005, an estate with a value less | | | | |