It's No Accident: For a 100% estate tax

Lynn Swann appears to think that he can make populist headway by attacking the inheritance tax in Pennsylvania. Luckily, Swann's candidacy is going nowhere.

The Pennsylvania inheritance tax is broader-based and therefore less progressive than the Federal Paris Hilton Tax, which applied exclusively to millionaires and which the Republicans want to eliminate, having christened it "the Death Tax" and gone about pretending as if spoiled heiresses were being oppressed. However, precisely because of its broader applicability, the Pennsylvania inheritance tax accounted for a large chunk of the state's revenue last fiscal year: $745.2 million. You could make arguments that the tax (which is currently flat) ought to be made more progressive by making it more confiscatory in higher-wealth brackets. Or you could say that it ought to be lowered in certain cases, the way Ed Rendell has supported partial exemptions for family farms.

But I say, why tinker? Let's have a 100% estate tax on all properties. The proceeds would go into a fund, and everyone who turns 18 gets a one-time lump-sum payment from this fund to start out in adult life.

Why don't we do this?

I'm being only a little facetious. I understand perfectly well why we don't do it: because powerful rich people would hate it, and they do everything in their power to make sure that it does not even arise as a topic for discussion. But if you look at things from a dispassionate policy perspective, there's no reason whatsoever why we shouldn't have a 100% estate tax.

Technorati tags: Paris Hilton, estate tax, inheritance tax, Pennsylvania, Lynn Swann, Ed Rendell

Comments

I don't care for your soak-the-rich attitude, or the unearned payment in your plan, but I independently agree that a 100% estate tax could be good if combined with elimination of taxes on the living, such as the income tax. The principles are that you can't take it with you, and your offspring are not you.

Posted by: Jonathan | March 22, 2008 04:34 PM

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