All taxes are collected to provide for our common needs including safety, defense, public works, education etc.

It is simply more efficient to pool resources to "buy" these valuable services.

Different taxes raise money including income, estate and GST tax. This is the price of living in a free and safe society.

So "fair" or not, we need tax revenue and estate tax is an important part of the equation during these hard economic times.

The right answer is Obama's: keep the exemption high (3.5MM per person) and the rate reasonable (45% or less – ideally around 25%).

Also, give Americans simplicity and certainty so they can plan their estates once and for all.

For all those small business owners and farmers worried about liquidity, spend a few thousand dollars on a qualified lawyer to help you with insurance and gift planning.

You'll solve your liquidity problems in a matter of weeks and can redirect your valuable energy and resources on growing your business rather than on estate tax worries.

Don't want to spend a few thousand dollars for good estate planning? Well, I don't like spending money on my CPA, but I do each year because she is an expert who saves me lots of time and money. I know that not investing in her expertise would cost me much more in terms of time, money and mistakes.

I would hope that everyone focuses on solutions at this point.

We could endlessly debate tax policy but the reality is that estate tax is not going away and we need to take steps to plan for it.

The sooner you plan, the sooner you and your heirs will feel better about whatever changes are in store for 2010 and beyond.

It is called the "Estate Tax" for a reason, it is the estate left behind that is responsible for the tax. But where the confusion comes in is that it is usually the person who inherits the estate who ends up handling the paperwork and logistics of paying the tax. That's not the same thing as paying the tax. The person who inherits the estate doesn't need to submit one document about their own wealth, income or tax situation to handle the tax on the estate.

For example, often times an estate is left to multiple people (children etc). Many times one of those people takes care of the tax logistics and the others just wait for the tax to be paid before they receive their share. They don't have to pay a dime.

-The first estate tax — enacted July 6, 1797, to help pay for naval rearmament — required only the purchase of federal stamps for wills and estates, but was terminated four years later because the need for the revenue passed.

-A direct tax on inheritances imposed in 1862 during the Civil War ranged from 0.75 percent to 5 percent.
The top rate was raised to 6 percent in 1864; but the tax was then abolished July 14, 1870.

-In 1898, an estate tax with a top rate of 15 percent on estates over $1 million was imposed to pay for the Spanish-American War — then repealed on April 12, 1902.

-America's fourth estate tax, enacted in 1916, set a top rate of 10 percent on estates over $5 million. It was raised to 25 percent in 1917, but this rate applied only to estates over $10 million. Unlike its predecessors, it was not repealed after the war, although the top rate was dropped to 20 percent in 1926.

-President Franklin Roosevelt raised the top rate to 60 percent in 1934, and to 70 percent in 1935. The same bill increased the top income tax rate to 75 percent and increased corporate taxes

So, before you make claims about the founding fathers trying to prevent the redistribution of wealth, think again. Oh and another thing to take note of was that the exemption level in 1916 was $5 million. Adjusted for inflation that is just over $100,000,000 today.

A modest estate is not subject to the tax at all – which is what the vast majority or persons leave. With an estate taxing system the Paris Hiltons of the world do not get to collect $350 million free and clear for simply being born. Admittedly, there are a few "in between" people who could get caught in unfortunate situations as described in the article, but in a country of 350 million people when you are a talking about a few hundred a year, that is pretty good.

The only change I would make is to greatly increase the rate of the "death tax" on estates above $1 million and have a corresponding cut in income taxes so that people who are actually earning the money can enjoy it while they are alive. Maybe if people know they cannot easily gift vast sums of money to their children they will spend more time teaching their children how to make money (which they obviously know how to do) instead of just spend it (as the children of multimillionaires are wont to do).

Inheritance tax (and income tax, for that matter), is confiscation by the government of what someone else earned. We'd be horrified if the government charged our 7-year-old taxes on his allowance, or even our 20-year-old on the cash we put up for their education. Why do we think it's ok for the government to confiscate and redistribute larger amounts of money?

We're penalized, by the income tax and by the inheritance tax, for being producers in an economy that depends on producers. We're penalized for taking care of our wealth and saving, for the benefit of our children. We pay the price, while those who are not saving and protecting their assets benefit from our frugality – those are the folks getting bailed out because they aren't paying their mortgages, and the banks getting bailed out because they have no capital to lend – because we the people don't see any benefit to caring for our wealth and saving it.

It's insanity, and always has been, to penalize people for saving and protecting wealth. Taxes should be levied on consumption, not on contribution. Until we get that figured out, the economy will continue to suffer from the boom and bust cycle, and the government will continue to encourage the wasteful, careless use of wealth that got us into this mess.

He then reports that as income he EARNED and pays tax on it as well
(taxation again?).

For those against the inheritance tax:

Are you really saying that the only time we do not tax the transfer
of money is when it is involves millions of dollars and is UNEARNED?

I live in farm country. Those with large farms and sons/daughters working the farm pay them the prevailing wage in money and land. The sons/daughters pay income
taxes on that transfer and then that land is theirs. By the time the parents are ready to retire, the
next generation has control of the farm.

This country was the first modern country to abolish inherited political power and we are much better off for it.
Why is inherited economic power good?