[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by mrnoodle

You'll get a bigger check if you're on welfare. If you pay taxes, though, you will pay more when Democrats have the reins. Wait, that's not entirely true this time around.....Republicans were spending money like drunken sailors. But now the death tax will come back, and my super rich parents will now pay taxes on the money they already paid taxes on when they die. Their financial planner estimated that their estate was worth about $300k before. With the inheritance tax subtracted, it's worth far less. I can't remember the number, but they told me last night that when it was divided amongst the 3 kids, we'd have enough for a downpayment on a modest house each. Thank goodness we have had all that extra ill-gotten gain taken from us and given to government programs. Now YOU can have some of it. Buy me lunch, at least?

You should check your facts, and get a new financial planner. This anti-death tax site's assessment in 2000 says

Although the history of the estate tax in the United States dates back over 200 years, the current features of the tax were put in place by the Tax Reform Act of 1976. Since that time, the United States has employed three taxes-the estate tax, the gift tax, and the generation skipping transfer tax (GSTT)-which comprise the United Transfer Tax. The logic of the tax system is straightforward. The value of the estate is taxed at increasing marginal tax rates ranging from 18 percent (for a taxable estate of zero to $10,000) to 55 percent (for taxable estate value of $3 million or more).1 An important feature of the tax, however, is the "unified credit." In effect, this provides a credit against the tax liability associated with the first $675,000 of taxable estate. This has two effects: the first $675,000 of the estate is exempt from tax and the effective marginal tax rate schedule begins at 37 percent. Because all interspousal transfers are exempt from tax, each spouse, in effect, takes the unified credit in succession, leading to a total exemption of $1.35 million of estate value.

So they would pay nothing in taxes on their $300K.