03/22/2006
The death tax kills small businesses. NFIB understands this, and that’s why we've been leading the fight for full death tax repeal for years. Now, NFIB and small-business owners are gearing up for the Senate’s approaching vote on full repeal.
Though the originally scheduled vote was delayed at the end of last year, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist recently announced his plan to bring death tax repeal back to the floor this spring.
“I'll do everything in my power to bury the death tax,” Frist said.
Permanent repeal of the death tax remains one of NFIB’s top priorities. It is a complex and confusing tax, which often results in small-business owners spending thousands of dollars on accountants and lawyers to ensure the survival of their business after their death––money that could be spent on creating new jobs.
Because the majority of small-business owners have the value of their business in their estate, the death tax can be crippling. When a small-business owner dies, the government reaps 37 to 55 percent of the estate, often leaving the business inoperable. This is extremely unfair, as the government already has collected income and other taxes during the life of the business owner. The death tax really means that the family is being taxed twice.
Though temporarily repealed as part of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, relief from the death tax is set to expire in 2011. If Congress does not vote to permanently repeal it, it will resume its damage to small business across the country.
NFIB has been rallying against the double taxation for years. Recognizing the importance of small business to the nation’s economy, President Bush suggested permanently repealing the death tax in his 2007 budget proposal.
“The President’s call to permanently repeal the death tax would be a huge victory for small business,” said NFIB Executive Vice President Dan Danner. “The death tax creates a disincentive to expand business, create jobs, and far too often literally taxes family business right out of the family.”
