The estate tax is double taxation at its worst!  How dare we work all our life, many of us taking risks and building businesses and face the possibility that the business we built could face closure or a sale off to pay the estate tax when we are gone from this world!  Family owned businesses create over 60% of all new jobs in this country according to the Small Business Administration.  These businesses support charitable causes in the communities where they operate.  They provide patient, nearly perpetual capital for the businesses they conduct ensuring continuity and stability to the businesses stakeholders.  Women and minority business owners in most cases are first generation business owners.  Many of them are just now thinking about the future of their businesses when they retire.  Will they sell the business?  Will they bring in a family member to run the business?  The list of questions goes on.              

President Bush's 2001 tax act gradually raises the value of estates that are exempt from the tax while simultaneously lowering the estate tax rate until the tax is eliminated in 2010. Prior to the act, estates were taxed up to 55 percent on inherited assets above $1 million, or $2 million for married couples. In 2009 the rate would be 45 percent for assets above $3.5 million, or $7 million for married couples.

Without congressional action, the tax would revert to 2001 levels in 2011, and Bush Read the rest of this entry »