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The Only Thing Worse Than an Audit is a Colonoscopy; Now You Get Both from the Same People
Putting the IRS in charge or Obamacare seems like a mistake of epic proportions, especially with the recent knowledge that the IRS has been harassing Tea Party groups, pro-constitution groups, pro-life organizations, Pro-Israel, and religious institutions.
I foresee the following happening.
Patient to Obamacare IRS office: I need medical attention.
Obamacare IRS office: Yes, I can help you with that. I just need you to fill out these forms.
Patient: Holy crap, I’m going to need treatment for carpal tunnel too after filling these out.
IRS office: You’ll need to fill out a different set of forms for those, let me get those for you. *hands patient a stack of paperwork twice the size of the first one*
Patient: *begins filling out paperwork* Hey, why do you need to know what political party I’m registered too? AND who I voted for last election?
IRS office: It’s standard procedure.
Patient: Okay…wait, you need to know what books I’ve read in the last year?!
IRS: With a summary of the content as well, yes.
Patient: You want a book report?
IRS: Standard-
Patient: -Procedure, I know. Hey, you can’t ask me if I own guns. That has nothing to do with my medical needs.
Bring Out Yer Dead! Or At Least 55% of Their Wealth.
Well it’s 2013. We survived a lot this past year. The Mayan’s really poor sense of humor, our President and Secretary of State blaming a youtube video for the death of 4 Americans, Hamas attacking Israel and nearly starting an all out war, the “ceasefire” between Palestine and Israel, Hurricanes, the election season, election night (I nearly didn’t survive that and several bottles of alcohol were murdered, but we made it), and I managed to not punch anyone in the face this year.
That was a close one to be honest and if I had physical access to some of the liberals on tumblr, that might not have happened.
However big things are happening this year and we need to discuss them. The obvious issue would be the fiscal cliff, but that’s a horse that’s been well and truly beat to death by better people than me and I’d like to avoid it.
Something that people have not been talking about as much is the fact that estate taxes (commonly referred to as “Death taxes”) are going up to 55% this year and $1 million is now the threshold. This would be a really bad year to die and leave an inheritance to your kids.
Two decades ago, Kester paid the IRS $2 million when he inherited a 22,000-acre cattle ranch from his grandfather. Come January, the tax burden on his children will be more than $13 million.
For supporters of a high estate tax, which is imposed on somebody’s estate after death, Kester is the kind of person they rarely mention. He doesn’t own a mansion. He’s not the CEO of a multi-national. But because of his line of work, he owns a lot of property that would be subject to a lot of tax.
“We’re not millionaires in the terms of making a million dollars a year,” said Kester who lives in a modest home and whose family — not outsiders or a corporation — runs his ranch. “I have a half-a-million dollars in soil.”
Kester can’t spend it, without selling land. But by selling the land, each year the ranch would become less viable.
- Fox News
In fact this will effect over half a million family farms in the United States.
See, an estate tax does not tax income or liquid assets. It taxes your assets and your estate. “A tax levied on the net value of the estate of a deceased person before distribution to the heirs.” And the estate and assets of a farm or ranch, while not liquid in many cases, add up to being worth a pretty penny very quickly. Land is not cheap and neither is the farming equipment or cattle or other livestock that one would find on a farm or ranch.
In 1997, a study looked at 22 herds of cows that averaged 99 heads of cattle and with the cost of cows being extremely high ($900 a head or more) the asset of a heard of cows could be worth over $100,000.
Then the land could be worth several million on its own.
Crops grown on a farm could be considered an asset and wheat, corn, and other crops are worth a lot!
Farm equipment is another expensive asset.
Family farms and family cattle ranches, which may not have much in the way of liquid assets (many do not) are quite often worth more than the million dollar asset limit asset limit.
So what happens when the person who owns one of this asset rich family farm or ranch dies and passes on the property to their children?
Well in the case of the Kester family, his children will have to pay a ‘death tax’ of $13 million dollars on his estate. The ranch does not have that sort of liquid worth, so the children will have to sell off part of their father’s land, their birthright, to pay the IRS.
Pay them for what exactly?
For the fact that their father died?
The land has neither gained nor lost value with the death of the father. The land is probably not even leaving the family line, no one is making a profit from the transfer of the land from the father to child.
But the IRS, like vultures picking the flesh off the dead, want their piece of the pie.
The estate tax is a relic that not even Russia or China still employ. Are we really so greedy and grasping that we use the death of someone as a reason to snatch as much of his or her property and assets as we can?
I guess the answer to that is yes, but it shouldn’t be.
Estate taxes are an unethical money grab by the government and they need to go. Even if the limit was moved up to protect family farms and ranches, the estate tax would still need to go. It’s a sign of greed and grasping at anything that someone else has earned.
I want to pass on my wealth to my children. That’s why I work so hard to better myself, not just to give them a better life while I’m with them, but to leave them something when I pass on. I don’t do it to give the government 55% of it when I die.
and CALL OFF CHRISTMAS!!!
Robin Hood is a heroic story of conservative principles, I’ve said that before on this blog.
Now the only real bright point of that Kevin Costner film that clip above is from is Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Especially his death scene.* It’s a crappy movie, but if you don’t judge my brain candy, I won’t judge you for that time you watched Jersey Shore.
The quality of the movie, or lack there of, isn’t the point of this post though.
You see, the Obama administration has effectively placed themselves as the Sheriff of Nottingham in America’s little version of Robin Hood.
They even threatened Christmas! What kind of monster does that?!
In a Monday report, the White House warned that failure to resolve the impasse over a tax and deficit deal could undermine consumer confidence this holiday season.
A new report from the National Economic Council and the Council of Economic Advisers timed to the online shopping holiday “cyber Monday” estimated that consumers could spend close to $200 billion less, while GDP growth could slow by 1.4 percentage points in 2013.
The report also warns that the psychological impact of a looming middle class tax hike could put a huge dent in retail sales over the holidays — traditionally the most important retail period of the year.
“Consumer confidence over the next several weeks is particularly important,” the report warns. “If Congress does not act on the president’s plan to extend tax cuts for the middle-class, it will be risking one of the key contributors to growth and jobs in our economy at the most important time of the year for retail stores.”
- Politico
As Doug Powers said in his article on MichelleMalkin.com: Raise taxes on the rich or Christmas gets it!
The funny thing about this is that the article was published on Politico on the 26th, but on the 25th Politico reported that there was a “Record start for holiday season”.
It’s estimated that U.S. shoppers hit stores and websites at record numbers over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation on Sunday.
…All told, a record 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites over the four-day weekend starting Thanksgiving, up 9.2 percent of last year, according to a survey of 4,000 shoppers that was conducted by research firm BIGinsight for the trade group. Americans spent more too: The average holiday shopper spent $423 over the entire weekend, up from $398. Total spending over the four-day weekend totaled $59.1 billion, up 12.8 percent from 2011.
- Politico
Hmm…so which is it Obama? Is the looming fiscal cliff really going to effect consumers that much? Because it seems like it isn’t doing much at all.
I argue that is because the majority of American’s are morons, I’m certianly not out spending tons of money this Holiday season, but then again my argument is confirmed by Obama winning the election.
People are idiots and sales will continue to pull them in. They are spending MORE now than they were in years previous, which means your little threats that Christmas will be ruined if we don’t let you raise taxes, we’re not buying it Scrooge.
Stop threatening to call of Christmas and do your damn job.
I’m on Robin Hood’s side here. If you are going to raise my taxes, I’m probably not going to be spending much at all. You can’t spend my money better than I can, especially not in the Holiday season. A welfare check doesn’t mean quite as much as buying my sister that new Taylor Swift songbook** and it doesn’t look as nice when wrapped up under the tree.
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*Because if there is one thing Alan Rickman is fantastic at, it’s overblown death scenes.
**Here’s hoping she doesn’t read this blog.
