By contrast, if you have a certificate of deposit and you have a cash interest, that's classified as what's called ordinary income, the kind of income that ordinary folks get, and the rates for that kind of income are higher than the rates for capital gains income, which itself enjoys other types of advantage. So there's a gross unfairness presently in the income tax in terms of the way different types of income are taxed. Repealing the estate and gift tax arguably makes that quite a bit worse. The tax system becomes less progressive, rather than staying the same at minimum or becoming more progressive. Well, I think that income should be taxed once, but I think it's a myth that it's the very wealthy that pay the estate tax.
Most people pay tax at the lower rates.
They can put their money in estates. In 2006, which is six years, yes, yes, that's true. Somebody that receives that amount of money just once is by virtue of that immediately very much better off than the vast majority of people. For the other estates that are taxable, it's around 13 percent. So, in fact, the magnitude of the tax and the coverage have been grossly overstated in the public debate.