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| SBE Council Makes Case for Death Tax Permanency
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March 1, 2005
Washington, D.C. - The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) is publishing a series of reports that lay out the case for making key aspects of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent.
The second report, written by SBE Council chief economist Raymond J. Keating, focuses on the death tax.
SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan observed: "The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts have been very important for entrepreneurs, small firms and their workforce, and the economy in general. The looming uncertainty about the future of these tax measures limits their full economic potential. Particularly with respect to the death tax, small business owners cannot reasonably plan -- unless, perhaps, they are certain they will die in 2010. The best course of action to help save family-owned enterprises, and promote business investment and growth is to make death tax repeal effective 2005."
In the report, Keating lays out the various economic arguments regarding the death tax, and highlights assorted studies that have estimated its economic impact. Keating argues that the death tax is "a grossly inefficient tax," hurts incentives for investing and risk taking, diverts resources from productive ventures to tax avoidance measures, is a highly unfair tax based on envy and class warfare, and takes a toll on the economy in terms of lost investment, jobs and output. He concludes: "To best spur entrepreneurship, investment, economic growth and job creation, the death tax should be immediately and permanently repealed. At the very least, the 2001 tax cut, which eliminates the death tax in 2010, should be made permanent."
The report - "Tax Cut Permanency Report #2: The Death Tax" - can be downloaded at SBE Council's website at http://www.sbecouncil.org/.
SBE Council can be contacted at 202-785-0238. For over ten years the SBE Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit small business advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C., has been working to protect small business and promote entrepreneurship.
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