Saturday, April 29, 2006

The rich are fighting for estate tax repeal

I've been struck by the fact that high-visibility billionaires such as Bill Gates Sr. and Warren Buffett have been very vocal about keeping the estate tax. Forces in favor of repeal have appeared to be largely the affluent but not super-rich business owners and farm families.

But according to a new report from Public Citizen much of the push for estate tax repeal has come from 18 "super-wealthy" families who have disguised their actions through creation and funding of business and trade associations.

The effort to repeal the estate tax this year appeared stalled; it will be interesting to see if this new study has political repurcussions.

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