Letters to the Editor
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‘The Non-Sulzberger Death Tax’
I read with great interest your recent editorial “The Non-Sulzberger Death Tax” [Editorial, March 4, 2008]. It advances a theme I’ve hammered on since 1993, which is the death tax is not an encumbrance to the wealthy because they don’t pay it. They set up trusts and foundations for avoidance.
And Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the New York Times publisher, manipulating personal property to avoid the tax for “estate planning purposes” should come as no surprise to anyone well-heeled enough to have lawyers and accountants guide them away from higher taxes. Who can blame them?
Warren Buffet traveled to Capitol Hill recently in support of this confiscatory tax. He made light of “whoever coined the phrase ‘death tax’ for estate tax as being a pretty clever fellow.”
Since none other than William Gates Sr. in his book “Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes” credits me with that honor, I thought I’d introduce myself to Mr. Buffet.
I informed him I had another name in his honor: the “voluntary tax” for all those incredibly wealthy individuals who like himself oppose repeal to be able to continue paying the levy. I bid adieu by saying, “and please, sir, don’t decide for the rest of us how we should be taxed.”
During Mr. Buffet’s testimony it was a surreal moment, in effect, when the Rockefeller Foundation, in the form of Senator Rockefeller, asked the Buffet Foundation, in the form of Warren Buffet, what he felt the exemption should be? They settled on $4 million or thereabouts as a “workable” exemption in their opinions. They aren’t affected, of course, but it was very nice indeed for these wizened gents to suggest the exemption level for others.
For 15 years, 60 Plus has helped move death tax repeal from one goal line to the other.
While three votes short in the Senate (57-43 for repeal), in the House we had an overwhelming 110 vote majority in 2005 with some 40-plus Democrats and, more importantly, eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus vote for repeal because they know this tax hurts minority businesses the most.
They have not bought into the con job that repeal is a tax cut for the rich, since the rich avoid it a la Sulzberger.
JAMES MARTIN
President
60 Plus Association
Arlington, Va.
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