Is 'death tax' an unfair burden? #tellusatoday

The House voted to repeal the estate tax last week. However, the measure, which affects about 0.2% of Americans every year, is unlikely to pass because of a veto threat. Letter to the editor:

The piece "'Death tax' punishes success: Opposing view" got it right, and so did our Founding Fathers.

This confiscatory tax stifles the desire to improve one's life, a fundamental reason people live in America and want to come here. It also is a government overreach by taxing the same earned money more than once.

Repealing the death tax would not be a windfall to the taxpayer but would be one for the government. Being such a small amount of all taxes collected also demonstrates the ineffectiveness of federal governance.

Very rarely is a tax repealed that should never even have been on the books in the first place.

Richard S. Trenkmann; Hayward, Wis.

Comments from Twitter and Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

I see no reason the government should tax the transfer of wealth that has already been taxed.

— @DLSermersheim

Getting rid of the "death tax" sounds good as a headline for Congress, but it is just another tax break for the rich.

— @Knoid2k

Why is this a priority now?

— @mccull0817

Repealing it is long overdue. Our government has to stop penalizing families for a lifetime of hard work.

— @3rdMrsH

This is not about wealthy income earners paying taxes. It's about their kids who inherit more than $5.4 million (from an individual) paying taxes on the amount that exceeds the tax-exempt amount. Is it really too much to ask the heir to earn his or her own keep after receiving $5.4 million tax free?

— Tom Kane

My children are my motivation in life and work. Nothing would burn me up inside more than the government taking a big proportion of the inheritance that I worked hard to leave to my children.

— Juan Moore

The estate tax is double taxation and is punitive. If a person already has paid taxes on what he has accrued, why should his heirs have to pay another tax on the estate? One of the biggest problems in the U.S. tax code is the near impossibility of leaving assets to heirs without the government taking some huge tax.

— Chris Palo

Dead people can't be taxed. Inheritance is unearned income.

— Walter Lampton

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