yes, "at all". several times you have attempted to divert the discussion on job-killing, business-destroying, family-wrecking,
uber-rich-protecting, estate taxes into a discussion on taxes on capital gains and those who make more than $250K a year.
no, you don't. you only want specific kinds of wealth transfer to be taxed. there are a thousand and one ways that parents can attempt to help their children do better in life - from hiring tutors, to buying them books as children, to encouraging and funding their computer-building hobbies and so on and so forth ad infinitum. Never have you proposed that a Child's future tax liabilities should go up because his parents sent him to a private high school, or because his mother took productive time to make sure to read him books when he was young. But your
logic demands it, and
down the path your logic leads lies madness.
That is absurd and now you are embracing the absurd in a woeful attempt to divert from a rational tax plan.
In the writing of law, what is done is that you accept a basic premise that guides you through the process. In this case we are talking about tax law and meeting the stated desires of the vast majority of Americas who want higher taxes upon the wealthy. I have already provided several national public pinion polls which clearly demonstrate a national support level of between 60% and 70% for this.
If we look at the main ways today that the wealthy have negated or neutralized or have gotten around the true intent and spirit of progressive tax rates, it pretty punch comes down to two factors
1- much of their income comes in capital gains which is taxed at 15%
2- a significant amount of money was transferred to some of them through estate taxes which healthy exemptions built in to that formula
To assure a national system which incorporates tax justice and gets us back to true progressive rates, these two factors have to be dealt with.
So we adopt a guiding principle that we take these two and no longer provide special categories for them since they are enriching a persons pocketbook or accounts exactly the same way that other form of income do such as wages or salary.
So we simply rewrite the tax laws so that capital gains are taxed as normal income according to the applicable schedules. We abolish the current estate tax and simply treat that money and wealth as income and tax it according to the applicable schedules.
We following the guiding rule that money going into a persons pocket or accounts is income.
Now you and others want to trot out the strawman of parents feeding children bowl of oatmeal as income or hiring tutors is income or buying a computer as income or buying a book as income and that reeucing this whole thing to absurdity is suppose to validate your idea and negate mine.
Sorry but that is just nonsense. I strongly suspect that the average American citizens who wants to increase taxes on the wealthy to avoid them getting around the progressive tax schedules knows the difference between
a- a bowl of oatmeal and millions of dollars in inheritance
b- a book and millions of dollars in inheritance
c- a teacher or tutor and millions of dollars in inheritance
d- a computer and million of dollars in inheritance
If you do not, I also strongly suspect that there is not one person on the planet capable of making you understand that difference if it is not already obvious to you.
All those sort of silly objections are easy to deal with in the writing of the law. Todays laws explain what can be taxed and not taxed and any current law can certainly differentiate with normal support for a childs life, gifts than cane be given, and the taxing of true inheritance as income.
You end with a dramatic DOWN THE PATH YOUR LOGIC LEADS TO MADNESS. Truthfully cp - if you cannot see the actual difference in taxing inheritance income and buying a book for a child, you have already gone a long way down the very path you describe.