The reason Warren Buffet is smiling is if congress keeps the estate tax AKA The Death tax, he will continue to sell millions of dollars worth of life insurance to off set the estate taxes. Is there no one in Congress that has read one of Thomas Sowell's books on basic economics? "Dough!" As Homer Simpson would say!
(Note: you may not be able to follow the link above to the whole story unless you are a subscriber- but give it a try anyway!)
Berkshire's Buffett Backs Estate Tax (Wall St. Journal)
By JOHN GODFREY November 14, 2007 3:54 p.m.
WASHINGTON -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chief Executive Warren Buffett said Wednesday that Congress should consider giving lower-income families a $1,000 annual tax credit rather than repealing the federal estate tax.
In testimony before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Mr. Buffett noted that of 2.4 million Americans who died last year, roughly 12,000 paid estate tax. "You'd have to attend 200 funerals to be at one" where an estate tax was owed, Mr. Buffett said.
Mr. Buffett suggested that rather than repealing the estate tax, it should be reformed to have less impact on smaller estates, but tax larger estates more to raise the same amount of money.
He suggested an exemption from the estate tax of about $4 million, up from the current $3.5 million. That exemption would be indexed for inflation. But in contrast to prior years, the initial rates beyond that exemption would be relatively low, and would gradually increase, Mr. Buffett said.
Question to Mr. Buffett (that was never asked) How much life insurance did you sell last year to high income people designed to off set the death tax ? A billion dollars? Two?
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
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