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Question: How much money does the average American inherit?

How much money does the average American inherit?
According to this website, the only people that are benefiting from the recent decline in estate tax (Death Tax) are the richest 1% of the population. The article claims that if the estate tax were relaxed any further (like it is doing now) the government and the middle class would be cheated out of Billions of dollars in funds!

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Answer: Your question is kind of irrelevant. Estate Taxes only apply to estates of greater than several million dollars. The person receiving the money is not taxed (directly); the *estate* pays the tax prior to distributing the inheritance money. So yes this is an issue that only rich people deal with.

However it is questionable to say the government is “cheated” out of the money in case of a tax reduction. Who says the government has the right to claim 55% of a family’s wealth when rich daddy dies? The problem with Estate Taxes are they are really high, confiscatory rates. As soon as they kick in an apply they are nearly 50% tax rates, and they go up from there with the government confiscating MOST of the deceased person’s property and money. They are simply not reasonable.

A lot of people would say the family is “cheated” out of the money by absurd socialistic government policy.

Better to say the word “cheated” doesn’t belong in the conversation. Just a question of what policy society chooses to pursue — use a death as an excuse for the government to seize most of a family’s wealth or not? Do people have a right to pass on hard earned wealth to their families or not?

You may not have much sympathy for rich people, but as a practical matter the estate tax often means decent families busy running a goo business for their livelihood suddenly are faced with losing their family business, or farm, or ranch, just because the elder founder dies. This isn’t always about useless heirs like Paris Hilton; a thriving business could be worth several million and trigger Estate Taxes, even though the family owning it work hard and live a middle class lifestyle.

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