Originally Posted by POS

The argument against the death tax is small business owners. We are already taxed on the business at every level - own a business sometime and you'll quickly learn that the government thinks our income streams are an excellent source of more revenue (income taxes, franchise taxes, property taxes) - and now after a lifetime of working to build a company, the kids get taxed yet again when I die when they inherit the business and the assets I've spent a lifetime building. It only affects those who hold "great wealth"? Are you kidding me? We bust our ass, take high risk, and invest all our lifetime savings to build something for our families, and when we die, the government takes half of it from my family. They think the money was just "found money" to my kids anyways, but I earned that money by living with high amounts of stress, dodging regular bullets, and a lot of time away from home to make sure my kids get a better-than-average head start on life.

Take the easy way, be an employee. No high risk, no high gain, no death tax. For hundreds of thousands of us, we strike out on our own, use our abilities to build something that supports our employees and their families too, reinvest all our savings to keep the business going, and then get whacked by the government for half our stuff on our deathbeds. The death tax is immoral.