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Article: 'A Tax on the Uninformed': Most Estate Taxes Can Be Avoided.(Statistical Data Included)
- Article from:
- Arkansas Business
- Article date:
- October 16, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Journal Publishing, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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MOST PEOPLE DON'T LIKE PAYING taxes during their lifetime, so the idea of paying them after death can be particularly loathsome.
Yet the 84-year-old estate tax remains firmly entrenched in the federal tax code, surviving numerous repeal efforts over the years. This year, the 106th Congress actually voted for a 10-year phase-out of the unpopular tax, but failed to muster the votes necessary to override President Clinton's veto.
The issue strikes a nerve with people who think the estate tax -- or "death tax," as its opponents call it -- is fundamentally unfair, that it's double taxation at extremely high rates, and can devastate a family-owned business or ...