Posted: Mar 26, 2014 8:13 pm
Agrippina wrote:They already tax the hell out of us, why should we pay tax on the money we've saved from our already taxed income.
Once more: this is the great lie about inheritence tax.
YOU don't pay the tax on money YOU'VE saved. Your children pay it on money they did fuck all for.
You may argue that that's good or bad; right or wrong. But can we drop the lie please? Inheritance tax is not some kind of double tax ON WHAT PEOPLE HAVE EARNED. The person who did the work, who "earned" the money is a fucking corpse and can't possibly react any differently to whatever you choose to do with the wealth that they USED TO enjoy.
It's a tax on entirely unearned wealth accruing to people who happened to come out of a particular birth canal. As such, it must be a far superior way to maintain a functioning state while respecting the importance of reward FOR LABOUR, than income tax. If gathering a certain amount in inheritance tax allows income taxes to be lower, that has to be a better way of allowing people to achieve the level of wealth their own labour actually deserves.