Subject: Estate Tax Comment: Preserve the step-up in cost basis of inherited assets. To eliminate the estate tax but to also eliminate the Step-Up in Cost Basis is a revenue-neutral shift in taxation, not an elimination of taxation. This would also shift the burden of taxation to Middle Americans inheriting farms, businesses, and other property or assets from their hard-working forebears. The Step-Up in Cost Basis is a safety-valve for middle Americans who inherit property, businesses, other assets from a hard-working earlier generation. These are not usually wealthy citizens who have the resources to pay for professional assistance in structuring ownership and transfer of assets for minimal taxation; these are middle Americans, Boomers in many cases, who do not see this big potential capital gains tax issue coming and who will need these assets to pass uneroded for their own retirement and longevity needs. Although it is appealing to go to Middle America when tax revenue is needed - that's where the numbers are after all - the Middle Class is getting squeezed from all sides. At a time when businesses are using a variety of legal means to shuck their promises to both their current employees and retirees, our Federal government needs to preserve means for individuals and families to live out the promise of opportunity and a better life to continue to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. Make sure that government is not adding to the economic stresses that are creating increasingly disparate economic classes. America with no Middle Class is no longer America. |