| - The
House plans to vote June 18 or 19 on a bill (HR
8) that would permanently eliminate the federal tax on estates.
- Please
contact your U.S. Representative and House Leadership and urge them to support
HR
8!
Another
tax cut highlights the House's floor agenda this week! The House Majority leadership
plans to send the estate tax legislation (HR
8) directly to the floor without a Ways and Means Committee markup this week.
The legislation would eliminate the federal tax on estates permanently. Under
the 2001 tax law (PL 107-16), the estate tax is being gradually reduced and will
disappear in 2010. But that law is scheduled to expire at the end of 2010, sending
the estate tax back to its 2001 rate structure. Proponents of eliminating what
many of them call the "death tax" argue that the estate tax has the potential
to force those inheriting small companies to sell the businesses in order to pay
the tax. When a family business must be sold to pay the death tax, often a distant
corporation will buy the farm or business and the effect on the community will
be the potential loss of jobs and the loss of the benefits of having a local business
involved in their community. Former
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who is now co-chairman of the tax cut advocacy
group Citizens for a Sound Economy, said his 280,000-member organization will
use telephone and e-mail messages and talk radio to urge Congress to eliminate
an "unfair" tax that "hits small business and farmers the hardest." According
to Rep. Jennifer Dunn, who introduced this bill, the dynamic effect of death tax
repeal has been established by several independent studies. Economist Allen Sinai
said that a full repeal of the death tax could lead to 165,000 new jobs and over
$150 billion increase in GDP. Other studies claim that permanent repeal will raise
disposable income by $10 billion and increase non-residential investment by $25
billion. Earlier
this year, National Grange's President, Kermit Richardson mentioned repeal of
the Death Tax as a National Grange priority in his letter to President Bush, "We
would strongly urge you to consider making the elimination of the "death" tax
permanent as part of any future tax proposal that your Administration sends to
the Congress". The
National Grange's position on this issue is expressed in the policy book:
The National Grange supports
legislation that would abolish the federal estate tax, especially for small business
and agriculture. Until the inheritance tax is gone we want the tax basis for inherited
property to be at the current use value and not the prospective development value.
Action
Plan --- Please contact your U.S. Representative and House Leadership to urge
them to support HR
8! House
Representative | House
Leadership If
you have any questions or comments please contact Legislative Research Analyst
Chil-Sook Hwang by fax: 202-347-1091
or by phone: 1-888-4GRANGE, ext 109. Thank you for your grassroots participation
in the National Grange Legislative program. Want
to Subscribe To  ? For
all subscription and circulation inquiries, Contact: Jonathan
Hill. | 
