From: Ligon@macgw1.ge.com (Woody Ligon)
Newsgroups: misc.rural
Subject: proposed increase in inheritance tax
Date: 9 Oct 92 12:46:59 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: GE-CRD

The following message just appeared in "misc.taxes".  I think everyone 
here in misc.rural should be alarmed.  I for one remember the bad old days
when family farms were being destroyed right and left because the only real
asset was the land and when the owner tried to pass it on to his children, 
the government came and took a third.  The problem being, of course that the 
government wants theirs in cash and that is the one thing family farms don't
have. With land values at $1-3 K per acre and tractors and combines at $100K,
 a reduction of the exempt limit to $200 K is completely unreasonable. 

Such taxes are intended only to redistribute wealth.  They do not encourage 
saving, and they do not encourage people to work harder so that there will
be something to leave to the children. Letting people keep what they have
accumlated through hard work encourages people to work harder and in the long
 run increases the wealth of the nation. Endless redistribution of wealth with
no encouragement for creation of wealth may make us all equal, but it will 
be equally poor not equally rich.  There is a cadre of social engineers in 
this country ( mostly democrats) who it seems will never understand 
this simple lesson.

Woody Ligon
Standard Disclaimer applies.    

Begin quotation
__________________________________________________________

>From: ca@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (christopher.arnone)
Newsgroups: misc.taxes
Subject: HR 4848 Raises Inheritance Taxes by Lowering 600K cap to 200K
Keywords: Inheritance taxes
Date: 6 Oct 92 13:03:43 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T

A bill currently before the house, HR 4848, would raise inheritance
taxes by lowering the federal tax free cap from the current $600,000 to
$200,000.  This $200,000 figure would mean that all assets over that amount
would be taxed at the rate of 31%.  All assets passed to heirs, including
the value of real estate, life insurance policies, cars, cash etc. count against
the $200,000 figure.  It is estimated that this would affect close to 40%
of all U.S. families, unless some additional estate planning is done to work
around this.  There is some talk that additional work on the bill might
include a lowering of the 10K tax free gifting policy currently is place.
(This information is a paraphrase from a CNBC report).

	Of course, the plan is to begin the actual voting process on this bill
next year, when the liberals will have a president who would most likely sign
it.  In reality, there are probably a whole slew of new tax bills being lined
up in Congress in preparation for Clinton's arrival.  I'm sure that they media
won't be providing much coverage on this stuff, other than the standard "taxes
only on the rich" line that the Clinton campaign is touting.

	I would say that we should call or write our Congress person on this,
but its probably a waste of time.  This should be a boom for accountants and
lawyers in the estate planning business, and a major headache for people who
will now have to be very creative to avoid having the government basically
seize a good chunk of their assets when they die.